Sun Stand Still

“Sun Stand Still”, Gal Weinstein’s project for the Israeli pavilion at the 57th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, is a new, site-specific installation which explores the human desire to stop time. Reflecting a fascination with actual and potential forms of creation and destruction, progress and devastation, this project critically engages with the mythological and Romantic images embedded in Israel’s collective memory. Each part of the exhibition is related to works created by Weinstein over the past decade, so that his entire oeuvre is woven into a single, cohesive installation.

  The project may be interpreted as a melancholic and poetic allegory of the Israeli story – one composed of miraculous acts and moments of enlightenment as well as neglect and destruction, a story vacillating between a megalomaniac soaring to great heights and a resounding crash. The divine miracle in the Ayalon Valley is related here to the Zionist project of conquering a seemingly barren wilderness, alongside expressions of technological progress and the mold agriculture. However, taken together, these works create a narrative that may also be read as a post-apocalyptic vision, revealing the cost of human hubris in the enterprise of civilization.

until 26 November 2017
Gal Weinstein: Sun Stand Still
curated by Tami Katz-Freiman
Israeli pavilion
57. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte – La Biennale di Venezia