Collection

In slowmotion on the highway

An endless stream of cars moves through the eternal night of a tunnel. In the background, we hear noises of muffled sirens, moving traffic and screeching brakes, accompanied by a continuous buzz. Then, a few cars stop and their doors are opened slowly. The drivers get out. More and more cars follow this example. The motorists stand beside their cars and seem to be plunged deep in thought or meditation for a long time. After this ritual moment of interruption, they resume their journey. The stream of riding cars slowly builds up again…

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Trembling Time (2001) van Yael Bartana tijdens de Cultuurnacht Almere 2011

As an Israeli citizen, Yael Bartana has personal experience of the political situation in her country, and this plays a major role in her work. The ‘trembling’ in the title of this video work Trembling Time refers both to the form and the content of the video. The subject is fear, and in particular, the fear enacted in rituals between the individual and the state. The motorists being filmed are driving through a tunnel near Tel Aviv on Memorial Day, the national day of remembrance of the Israeli victims, both military and civilian, who lost their lives for the Jewish state since the foundation of Israel in 1948. This commemoration is intricately linked with the present, and with the future, because the ‘trembling time’ of the current political situation in Israel still takes its toll every day. Bartana enhances the temporal dimension of the commemoration by the form of her video, by playing the footage in slow motion and making different moments in time fade into each other. She wants to make it clear that, with such a ritual, the state aims to psychologically structure the lives of individuals. It is a choice between respect for the fallen and respect for individual freedom of choice. There does not seem to be any middle course.

Yael Bartana, Trembling Time
Yael Bartana, b. 1970, Jerusalem, Israel
Trembling Time, 2001
video installation, sound
6’ 20’’, edition 4/5
purchased in 2001, Museum De Paviljoens

Website Yael Bartana