Israeli Art-Modern

On the day the US and British air forces bombed Iraq, I went to Kamakura by train. The late winter sky above the old city was clear and blue. The plum trees had started to bloom. It was hard to believe that there was a war going on somewhere far away. Because it was the weekend, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine was packed with tourists. But the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, which is on the same property, was almost empty. The exhibition 'Israeli Art - Modern: Messages to the New Millennium' was showing. (on until March 25)

On display are works by Yosef Zaritsky, known as the father of Israeli modern art, together with those of eleven others. Three works especially moved me: a painting by Mordecai Ardon, an installation by Menashe Kadishman, and another installation by Kadishman and Dani Karavan. All works with Holocaust motifs elevated to universality.

'Train of Numbers'

The title of Ardon’s painting is 'Train of Numbers'. The rectangular 73.5 x 145cm oil painting contrasts red and yellow hues in the upper part with black below. Looking further into the painting, the fireworks-like upper part of the tableau contains hollows reminiscent of skeletons. The eponymous train’s lower section features many numbers, such as 442345. It is a masterpiece describing with minute brush strokes the great tragedy of the Jews, who were forced onto trains by the Nazis and taken to concentration camps where they were killed.

'Shalechet (Fallen Leaves)'
photo: Ueno Norihiro

'Shalechet (Fallen Leaves)' is an installation by Kadishman that consists of an iron sculpture of faces covering the corner of the hallway beside the patio. It has been exhibited around the world since 1997. Fallen Leaves=faces with rust that look like they are laughing or crying out. As in Ardon’s painting, they reminded me of wraith-like figures. Small faces, big faces: faces, faces, and more faces cut away from their bodies…

Memory of the Railroad

'Kadish: Requiem for a Tzabar'
photo: Ueno Norihiro

The most striking work is a collaborative piece by Kadishman and Karavan, 'Kadish: Requiem for a Tzabar'. This installation is created with iron rails on the first-floor terrace, facing a pond. White gravel is spread under the rails, and through it, yellow chrysanthemums are peeking out. One end of the rails is under the staircase and behind it is a mirror so the rails seems to reach up to heaven. The other end is cut off at the end of the terrace. In the pond beyond is an iron sculpture of Tzabar, a cactus, symbolic of the Israeli people. Around the sculpture, wooden Shalechet=faces are floating on the water.

It reminded me of Grunewald Station, where I visited several years ago. Grunewald Station is where the Jews (and also homosexuals and gypsies) were gathered from all over Berlin, and packed onto trains to be sent to concentration and extermination camps at Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz and Treblinka. The 17th Platform is preserved as a historical monument. On the ground, there are plates engraved with victims' names, and places and years of their births and deaths. The birthplaces and birthdates vary, but all the deaths, without exception, were in concentration camps sometime between 1941 and 1945.

'The memories of the concentration camp' are inextricable from the forced transportation before the concentration camps, thus the memory of the train ride. Claude Lenzmann’s nine-hour film 'Shoah' had the unforgettable rhythm of a train moving forward. The interview with historian Raul Hilberg in the film revealed that the Nazis used the German National Railroad to move Jews at a special group discount rate. What’s worse, the transportation costs were covered with property and bank accounts confiscated from the Jews themselves. The Jewish people were forced to subsidize their own deaths.

Expectation of a Mixed-Media Presentation

'Israeli Art - Today' is also being held at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama as an accompanying exhibition through March 20, although I only purchased the catalogue and haven't seen the exhibition yet. I look forward to seeing Micha Ullman’s work. Ullman is known for his representative work 'Library', a symbolic representation of Nazi book burning installed in Berlin’s Bebel Platz where the incident actually took place. I am also looking forward to seeing Penny Yassour’s 'Screens: Railway Map Germany 1938' which shows the web-like railway network of Germany. It painfully reminds us of the people who were eventually sent via railway to the gas chambers.

It’s not easy to understand the context of art from a country like Israel, with a history and present circumstances that are complex. In that sense, it is very helpful that two museums are holding exhibitions together. Furthermore, film companies, event promoters, and publishing companies should also join in to show films, stage performances, and publish books on the Middle East and its contemporary history. A mixed-media presentation of the theme would provide excellent opportunities for us to get a better understanding of the Middle East. Showings of the above-mentioned 'Shoah', Steve Reich’s 'Cave', publications of Hilberg’s untranslated books, poetry readings of Paul Celan’s work… why not?