LLACUNA

MEATS Elisava
Roger Paez, Toni Montes, Gabi Paré, Maria de la Cámara

Based on an exploration of the inherent possibilities of light, the installation is intended as an homage to the past, using light to recreate the mysterious sensations of a swamp, as it reemerges temporarily in today’s urban surroundings. Amid the dry Motti gardens and the refurbished heritage building of Hansen House, our aim is to immerse active visitors into a plane of light that evokes and embodies the atmosphere of a primordial swamp. The desired effect is to erase the urbanized ground, creating a misty humid feeling characteristic of the Gihon swampland that once occupied the Kidron valley. The focus of the installation is on the visitors; as they sink into the horizontal plane of light – like the stagnant waters of a swamp – it creates movement that transforms everyone’s sensory experience of the space. They generate shadows, which encourages other visitors to wade into the plane of light and discover the ambience of the life-giving water at the origin of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was, and is, a dry territory. Yet, because of its scarcity and its life-giving properties, water occupied a fundamental place in the life of ancient Jerusalem. The Biblical texts depict Jerusalem as a city lying on the hills of the blessed land and watered “with the bounty of dew from heaven, and of the deep that couches below” (Devarim 33:13). In ancient times, the waters from Gihon spring supported city life and accumulated in the pool of Siloam. These waters (“Siloa‘s brook that flow’d Fast by the Oracle of God.” John Milton, Paradise Lost) were thought to have special healing powers (John 9:7). The very Temple Mount had, since the times of the First Temple, major water reservoirs dug inside it, some of which were posited by Aristeas of Marmora (II century BC) as the sources of the world’s waters, thus reinforcing the belief of Jerusalem as the centre of the world. Today, water remains a central issue for Jerusalem, the Middle East, and a large part of the world, where this precious resource is scarce and the source of innumerable conflicts. Llacuna is also a reminder of our dependence from water and the need to care for it for all life on Earth.