Makom-Al-Makom_catalog-new

E22 Territories revisits the home of one diasporic Jewish community, which took up the challenge of relocating to Israel, its historical country of origin, in the space of a few months in 1951. The virtually rendered relief folds the migratory journey undertaken by the artist's family into the region's ancient history. In these works, Basrah remains an excavation site viewed from a safe distance, not a nostalgically remembered home. Looking beyond the images of Basrah, the Virtual Territories series addresses Google Earth's representation of Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The quintessence of Jewish identity, this site has been violently contested among the three monotheistic religions throughout history. In this work, Sharabani has traced the contours of the satellite image of the Temple Mount onto an actual sand table, opting, in his words, to "bring the place itself into the studio." Addressing this politically charged geographical site, Sharabani's Temple Mount series maps the historical trauma of the Jewish exile from Jerusalem onto contemporary circumstances, namely political clashes between Israel and Islamic fundamentalists. Figure 14: Ronen Sharabani, Basrah #3 (detail) , from the series Virtual Territories , 2019, digital print, 60X100 cm