אליהו אריק בוקובזה Eliahou Eric Bokobza

The new creation emerging out of the devastation and death at the end of “A Story of Creation and Destruction,” by Eliahou Eric Bokobza, has a shaking emotional effect upon the viewers and listeners. The difficult end and the work as a whole were conceived of by the artist some four years ago. Nevertheless, they appear closely related to “Operation Guardian of the Walls” and to the riots that broke out in most mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel only several months ago.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is described in the work as a primeval existential state going back to the Garden of Eden. The biblical story, a cultural and religious cornerstone, is charged with countless meanings and interpretations. In this case, it is related to the city of Tel Aviv, which is identified by two iconic architectural symbols: the minaret of the Hassan Bek Mosque and the chimney of the Reading Power Station, which rises 150 meters over the Tel Aviv skyline.

These two architectural landmarks represent a charged history. The Hassan Bek mosque was built in 1913 by Hassan Bek, the military governor of Jaffa, to block the growth of the nascent Tel Aviv. The Reading Power Station was named after the British Jew and Zionist activist Daniel Isaacs, the Marquess of Reading . It was built in 1937 following the growing demand for electricity in Tel Aviv, as well as due to the damage to electric lines caused during the Arab Revolt (1936–1939).
The exhibition title, “The Book of Twins,” allows for a consideration of this work as external to the biblical canon, yet still bearing an affinity with it. Bokobza’s “Creation” combines biblical myths and scientific theories. The protagonists of this work are the split figure of the twins, who first appear in the Garden of Eden and lead to the second part of the work, “Destruction.” At this point, the animation work takes on a biting local character, far from any sort of idyll: we observe the events in Tel Aviv and Gaza and are immersed, by means of the sounds and narrative, in a painfully familiar state of local warfare. In contrast to the work’s innocent, optimistic opening part, the end allows for no possibility of either a shared life or separate lives. The utopian creation reaches its dystopian end.

This animation work was inspired by two opera arias, which are both heard within the gallery: The first aria is “Lascia ch’io pianga” (Let me weep) by Georg Friendrich Händel, from the 1711 opera Rinaldo, which tells the story of a woman trapped in a palace garden in Jerusalem in the time of the crusades, who is lamenting her fate. The second aria is Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gelido in ogni vena” (My blood is frozen in my veins), from the 1727 opera Farnace, which tells of a father who kills his son with his own hands. Bokobza’s work creates an appearance of compatibility – at once uplifting and harrowing – between the musical score, the gestures and movements of the human figures, the natural world and the weapons of destruction.

Bokobza’s bold palette and naïve style form a sort of honey trap, which captivates the hearts of viewers while striking us at our most vulnerable. Bokobza confronts us with acute concerns related to the Israeli present. Beyond his use of local ingredients and reference to themes and motifs from the history of Israeli art, his materials and technique – which includes painting on rice paper and silk fans – allude to the history of art more generally. In this manner, the local conflict appears as part of a series of global conflicts, as if to declare that, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

Exhibition Curator: Shira Friedman