Here's what we like to call "Israeli pride": Israeli architect Yuval Bar, video artist Maor Michaelov (Mauritius) and sound artist Ziv Brashi present the video installation "The Four Seasons - an Evasive Harmony" at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
The theme of the biennale, which opened on Saturday, is the climate crisis, but according to Bar, the crisis is not only climate, but also moral – in all areas of life.
This is the second time Barr has participated in the European Cultural Centre (ECC's Time Space Existence) exhibition, and his work addresses the ecological crisis in the Anthropocene era, in which humans have become, consciously or unconsciously, the dominant force of nature on Earth, and are forced to deal with the consequences of the climate crisis they created with their own hands.
"The Four Seasons - an Evasive Harmony" - teaser for the exhibition
"Modern architecture has promised to give us technological and political solutions to the ecological crisis of the Industrial Revolution, but all signs show that the armistice declared between man and nature is not only not holding up – it is getting worse," he says.
"The installation we created simulates Platonic space, which is actually the foundation of classical thought. It is built of the four winds of heaven, the four seasons, the four elements, with references to Neo-Platonic Kabbalistic thought, which holds that the world was created by consciousness out of chaos, using letters, numbers and narratives."
What is the connection between acceptance and the climate crisis?
"The tradition of architecture is built on Greek Platonic mathematics, which divides the world into four elements. In the academic world, Kabbalah is considered neo-Platonic, and shows that the world is built on mathematics – that is, on numbers, but also on letters. The Book of Creation, from the ancient books of Kabbalah, opens with a description that the world was created in 32 articles - 22 letters and ten sefirot - and our work offers a way to cope with the challenging reality.
"Something has gone wrong with the classical order of the world, and hence comes the realization that we must find a new way, a higher level of consciousness. One that offers acceptance, and no more political speech in which others are only blamed."
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