In the exhibition “Half Moon Half Sun” Orit Ishay presents photographs and video works from the last couple of years. The juxtaposition of the works allows Ishay to create a hybridized space, which unfolds a long list of contrasts gone awry. The works in this exhibition strive to understand something about the present moment, trace the presence of that which is not present, stop the torrent of time, challenge the power relations that produce binary relations, and point at the absurd that emerges when we turn to look at reality.
Among other things, Ishay photographs the construction of thousands of residential protected spaces (Mamad) in the kibbutzim in the Gaza envelope area, as well as the external walls of houses marked with serial numbers in blue and red; she talks with the project’s foreman about the Israeli reality in which Palestinian construction workers build security rooms and restore houses that were destroyed by other Palestinians; her camera captures public shelters in the Israeli periphery whose walls were decorated with pastoral landscape paintings or biblical writings; and interweaves video footage of a military swearing in ceremony, folk dancing in a generic Israeli courtyard, and video footage of the television screen featuring the torch lighting ceremony with the words “For the Glory of Israel”.
Opening: Tuesday, 17 February, 2015 at 20:00
Closing: Saturday, 25 April, 2015