israeli pavilion at the 9th biennale international architecture exhibition 2004 .......................................................................................................................
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9th international architecture exhibition in venice, italy, 2004 / israeli pavillion ‘back to the sea’ by ariel efron; shelly federman, mayslits kassif, neuland project, ran slavin; vera treitel, daniel rozin, environmental simulation laboratory of the tel aviv university. with the special participation of: andrea branzi, peter cook, coop himmelb(l)au; adolfo natalini, ortner & ortner (exerpt from the curator’s text) the sea is israel’s western border, and this geographical fact is well entrenched in the hebrew language, and hence in the israeli consciousness. the root of the hebrew word ‘ma‘arav’ (west) is ‘‘erev’, meaning evening. the hebrew word for ‘sunset’ ‘shki‘ah’ has two meanings: sunset and sinking. in the bible, the mediterranean sea is also called ‘the last sea’, as the pilgrims would face forward, toward jerusalem at the east, leaving the sea behind their backs. the exhibition reflects the pendulum motion of tel aviv, between turning its back to the sea, and returning back to the sea. but not at the familiar, romantic ‘kitschy’ sight revealed as we face the sun setting into the water, painting the end of the day red. it focuses its gaze on a different moment in time: the moment of clarity created as the dawn light spreads from the east over the city and its skies. sunrise is a time of awakening, the moment when the day is born and things are rediscovered and made clearer. tel aviv was built as a modern city, out of a desire to create a jewish town - an urban something-out-of-nothing construction over an imaginary base of sand dunes. tel aviv’s name was the hebrew translation of the title of a novel ‘altneuland’ (literally: old-new land), in which an utopian new jewish state is outlined. but the utopian light of tel aviv has faded; it has been absorbed into a complex political reality - traded in for a hedonistic post-capitalist culture. ehud kassifand ganit mayslits-kassif’s experimental architectural project, neuland, presents six proposals by young architects to reconceive tel aviv. these proposals are based on a critical, ironic reading, which combines desperation of the present state together with aection and optimism. for this purposes, they have created a neuland - a new tel aviv - which is a mirror image of the existing city, placed across from tel aviv beach, on the water. the arti&Mac222;cial imaginary island created by the neuland architects is not the only one in the area. there have been concrete architectural initiatives for the drying up of portions of the sea for the purpose of creating arti&Mac222;cial islands. work has already begun on a master-plan for such islands. the discussion of arti&Mac222;cial islands has, in addition to the local aspect, a universal aspect. for this reason, the curators have sought the opinions of various representatives of the radical architectural groups of the 1960s and 1970s about the creation of the islands. in the pavilion’s courtyard, they created the atmosphere of a seashore, an outside space aording respite - a tel aviv beach. the courtyard features an installation whose subject matter is the impossible encounter between social justice and real estate values at thebeach’s front. if the sea is everyone’s property, how is it possible to close o beaches to serve tourists and the rich? for more info see http://www.labiennale-israelipavilion.org --- back to the biennale participating countries index page --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	artificial island project tel aviv jaffa film presentation tel aviv beach installation