Kelet
Digital projection (converted 8mm film) on nets | 2015
In 1932, when Kibbutz Afikim was erected, between the Jordan River and the Yarmuch, the cornerstone of Kalat was placed, then a factory which produced gasoline cans packaging for the British army. In 1941 the factory began manufacturing wooden plywood, which over time became the main production branch of the factory. It grew to be the largest industrial factory, and the first one, in the Kibbutz movement as a whole. My grandfather, Luva, was one of the founders, and my father, Ran, worked at the extension factory founded in The Congo. The factory closed its gates in 1999, and now only a few abandoned buildings remain, standing like silent monuments at the entrance of the Kibbutz.
From the mid-sixties, my grandfather began filming with an 8mm camera. Uncovering his old films and converting them into digital media unravelled memories, and a story that is both personal and public. A story of a family and of a collective. The images, projected onto the nets, the same nets which currently cover the old factory, are captured in one, move to the other, and continue until only hints of movement remain. Between fold to fold, in the cave or maze-like structure, a clearing appears, exposing a seen and unseen world.
Between the Jordan Valley to the Old City of Jerusalem, from Sinai’s desert to the glittering shores of America, through the celebrations that were had on the great lawn of the Kibbutz to the inauguration of the factory’s extension in The Congo, the images, reflected through nets and time, uncover a world which seems at least as obsolete as the negative film on which it was captured.
Exhibited at Hamekarer | 2015
Curators: Iris Pshedezki | Gili Zeidman | Omri Ben Arzi