Zoya Cherkassky
By Derschmidt • 10:19 PM • Category: Artists
© foto: essl museum
without title
The reasons that are lying at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are political and are to be analyzed using political language. Rhetorical language used by artists allows representation of any position and how convincing will it be depends only on the artist’s skills.
The aim of art, as we understand it, is the critique of the rhetorical statement. Referring to the left-wing avant-garde tradition, we demonstrate rhetorical forms which are most frequently used by the artists within this discourse. We are presenting two abstract sculptures the shape of which reminds one of the maps of Israel and the Occupied Territories of Palestine. These sculptures, placed in the exhibition space, function as a normal, traditional artistic product. All that can be said about these sculptures can’t break the frames of aesthetic judgment. Thus, any problems that are related to the conflict can’t be observed by using aesthetic language. When the political discussion takes place, all the images presented at exhibitions are to be forgotten. Such exhibitions profane the possibility of the real political discussion.
Coca Cola
Since co-existence is discussed all the time but is never actually established, I found a quite simple metaphor for the situation: Coca Cola exists everywhere and it’s one of the most immediate things that unify the two peoples – Jews and Arabs (and the rest of the world, actually). The title of this sculpture is “Cousins”. This word is frequently used by Israelis while talking about Palestinians. I’m not sure whether the Palestinians call us “cousins” too.
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