PLACE DE LA BONNE HEURE, 2005

Child: Antonio Chury
Photography: With Uri Frost and Ziv Berkovich
Editing: With Uri Frost
Soundtrack: Uri Frost
Technology: With Yuval Kedem (Galileo) and Amnon Dekel
Duration of film: 9’56’’
Tel aviv museum of art collection

A single visitor is invited to embark on a solo audiovisual journey in this space, linking the Beautiful Hours' Circus –an architectural dystopia on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa – and the Qalandiya checkpoint, which sits on the ruins of the market square of a village by that name between Jerusalem and Ramallah. The video work creates a sense of stagnation, as it flits back and forth between two town squares whose public-community role has been disrupted: the Beautiful Hours' Circus, which lies deserted due to poor planning, and the crowded and hot Qalandiya, after the market there was demolished to make way for a checkpoint whose purpose is to control and restrict the entry of Palestinians from Ramallah into East Jerusalem.
The visitor is invited to enter into the dark space alone, to sit on the chair, and to make it turn around using only his or her body weight. A headset is attached to the chair, playing an audio piece composed by Uri Frost especially for the installation. Attached to the back of the headrest above the visitor’s head is a projector that rotates with the chair so that the projected film moves along the walls that intermittently flit in and out of view in the gloom. The manipulation reflects, in the physical space of the visitor, a sense of political stagnation, for he or she is confined to the rotating chair and obliged to keep watching the screen: if they lower their gaze or look sideways, dizziness ensues.
Text: Aya Lurie