Solaris. A Trilogy
Three video films, 2022-2024.
01:08 Minutes.
Three video films, 2022-2024, screened simultaneously: "Project Melissa", "The Sun Also Rises" and "Bama". The three videos occur in ancient sites - in a Columbarium cave, a Roman theater, and the
Judean desert. At the center of each video, a ritual is performed by the artist. All three videos are myths-based: one, is from the Bugonia myth in which a cow's corpse begets a swarm of bees; the second is from the Egyptian myth of the goddess Hathor; And the third, is an individual myth, where a statue of
a giant bull is set on fire. The trilogy affirms a spiritual journey, where an initiation ceremony of death and resurrection takes place while asserting the female self through cosmic transitions from moon to .sun, from night to day, and from darkness to light
Project Melissa
2022. Exhibition Documentation.
01:37 Minutes.
Build a house, ten cubits high, with all the sides of equal dimensions, with one door, and four windows, one on each side; put an ox into it, thirty months old, very fat and fleshy; let a number of young men kill him by beating him violently with clubs, so as to mangle both flesh and bones, but taking care not to shed any blood; let all the orifices, mouth, eyes, nose etc. be stopped up with clean and fine linen, impregnated with pitch; let a quantity of thyme be strewed under the reclining animal, and then let windows and doors be closed and covered with a thick coating of clay, to prevent the access of air or wind. After three weeks have passed, let the house be opened, and let light and fresh air get access to it, except from the side from which the wind blows strongest. Eleven days afterwards, you will find the house full of bees, hanging together in clusters, and nothing left of the ox but horns, bones and hair.
(Geoponika, Bizantium, 10th Century)
Entering The Columbarium cave, Eden Auerbach Ofrat carries wooden logs, metal poles, and two bull skeletons - from which she constructs a flying machine. When operated, the Skeleton’s ribs will turn into mechanical wings upon which thousands of bees are released, an echo of an ancient ritual, The Bugonia ( mentioned above). The death of the bull - a symbol of masculine aggression, begets the spirit’s ascension, the swarm of bees ( The Melissae - the messengers of the gods. In Greek Melissa = bee ).
Between one wing swing to another life emerges out of death, from within a dark power - a sublime tenderness will rise.
Video Documentation by ZAZ10TS Gallery.
Amaterasu
2020. A Video Installation Documentation.
01:56 Minutes.
A cubicle black space. A black water pool covering its front half. The video projected on the black wall above it, reflected and doubled as a greenish version on the water surface.
Woman-Sun, Sun-Woman, a divine cosmic power, allying myth with light, a divinity which is a celestial dance, until the infinite light is parallely lack of light and void, until creation is chaos and chaos is creation.
AL BURAQ
2017. A video Installation Documentation.
02:28 Minutes.
Al Buraq the legendary winged horse, is galloping above the Arabian desert towards Jerusalem. Night, and the Holy City’s sites gradually give place to the Wailing Wall, where Al Buraq is ascending high to the sky, turning – like Pegasus – into a stars-constellation while dropping down white feathers.
DER ERLKONIG
2017. A video Installation Documentation.
06:21 Minutes.
A panoramic representation of a German-green forest is screened on a long wall. From within the wood there emerges a bent green figure covered with branches and leaves, walking slowly among the trees, shedding branches and leaves along its way. Reaching the end of the frame, it bends down at the foot of a tree and is embed in it. All along, following the leaves-figure, a ghostly female figure appears - half transparent, dressed in white. She patiently gathers the branches and leaves that were dropped from the green figure. When she reaches the final tree into which the green figure was embed, she kneels and put down the gathered branches and with her breath ignites a fire that soon spreads over the whole forest and destroys it with high flames. Snow starts to fall, when, behind a nearby door, hands dig-out a box from the ground, inside which is projected the opening scene from Citizen Kane together with the words: "Rose bud...".
TERMINAL ( Homage To Arnold Bocklin )
2015. A video Installation Documentation.
04:01 Minutes.
A boat, loaded with artworks, is being sailed by a figure dressed with black gown and a hood. A crow crosses the sky while a storm is erupting. Simultaneously, in a parallel space Cerberus, the three headed dog, standing on the shore, guarding the gates to Hades. The crow descends.
LAPIS LAZULIS
2015. A Video Installation Documentation.
02:20 Minutes.
There, where beginning is also the end; There, where the womb is also a crypt; There, at the center of "Khora" - the Great Mother, birth-giving and devouring; There swims lapis-Lazulis - The Fish of death, also the fish of wonder and miracle. From within the abyss Lapis-Lazulis conveys its secret silent gospel.
SCAPEGOAT
2014. A Video Projection.
03:10 Minutes.
The Judean Desert, the historic site for the ritual of the scapegoat. The sky is heavy with grey storm clouds.A strange figure emerges from far away, dressed all in white and wearing a white goat mask. It is carrying on his back a red tank and holding a huge brown wooden rattle, which announces according to old tradition, the appearing of the damned, disaster stricken person. While advancing, the figure sprays along the way red fluid from the tank,now being the scapegoat as well as the High Priest who purifies with blood.
LITTLE HANS FOUR HORSEMAN
2013. A Video Projection.
02:46 Minutes.
The screen is misty, something between fog and black-and-white pixels ‘snow’. A low monotonous and mysterious sound is heard, while a horizon-line is slowly appearing. Are we watching a desert and sky, a snowstorm, a sea? Slight bursts of colors quickly fade into black-and-white, returning to the misty semi-abstracted blurred view. From within the distance there moves up towards us an undefined entity. Is it an island, a ship, human figure? Gradually the entity (often fading and blurred into the surrounding) is nearing only to be identified as a horse with a face-less she-rider. A ray of white light glitters from the horse's forehead. Parallelly, appearing from the distance - one after the other, in and out of focus - another three women-riders, each being specified by a different color - green, black, red, white. Rays of white light shine from all the horses' foreheads like horns. The four faceless riders gallop towards the camera until they fill the screen. Being face-less, the tricky-evasive-ambivalent landscape keeps on being seen through them, until the four riders disappear into nothingness which will be followed by a new start of the loop.
NAUTILUS
2010. A Video Installation Documentation.
02:52 Minutes.
Three large simultaneous projections. The first on the left shows a black big entrance to a cave. from time to time a twinkle of light is flashing out towards the spectator. The second projection shows a Nautilus shell emerges from under the sand to the surface. A female figure appears, slowly crawls her way out. The third projection shows a huge wave endlessly curling into itself. A change appears when in the second (main) projection the female figure reaches the entrance of the shell. Then, the image fades out and appears again in front of the open sea while the figure is listening to a shell. At the same time a harsh blinding light reveals itself on the other two screens, and gradually whittens out the images until they fade out.
THE STATION
2009. A Video Projection.
02:49 Minutes.
Rails crosses the image. A train is approaching. The frame is filled with its smoke. As it passes through, a woman figure emerges from the fading smoke. She is digging in the sandy ground. While digging all of the sudden water starts gushing out from the hole covering the ground. When it finally settles inside the boundaries of the rails, it transforms into a small river. The rails wooden boards also transform and become a raft. The woman is climbing on it and sits down while the raft is sailing away toward its new unknown journey.
THE POOL
2005. A Video Installation Documentation.
03:24 Minutes.
A video projection of an enchanting pool surrounded by natural dry leaves. The pool undergoes transformations of time and weather until an enigmatic figure emerges from within the water.
The pool that reflects the time changes simultaneously embodies the secrets of life and creation along with death and decay. This installation relates to Bialic's Poem ’The Pool’ while keeping its organic mythic entity and linking it to the multicultural fairy-tale traditions; however, the latter become a personal experience of metamorphosis.
THE EYE VOYAGE
2004. A Video Installation Documentation (Video simulation).
01:30 Minutes.
The work consists of an old cupboard into which the spectator enters and walks through a narrow dark corridor. At its end he reaches a wall with a small hole in the shape of an eye. When he peeps through he discovers a night view of a moon shining on a purple sea.An eye-boat is sailing on the water towards him. Along the boat\eye voyage the eye loses its vitality, until total oblivion.
"....OUR TWO LIPS...."
2003. A Video Projection.
01:49 Minutes.
A work in the spirit and tongue of Luce Irigarai. A work on tongue of flesh and mind. A work on sexuality and language. A work on two lips of speech, of kiss and of vagina. A work on feminine discourse, a speech of love.
THE WELL
2002. A Video Installation Documentation.
01:45 Minutes.
A projection of a drowning woman on the water surface inside an old well. The audience only
viewpoint is by looking through the hole of the well cover.