This Is Jerusalem, Mr. Pasolini by Amir Yatziv
In his work, Yatziv draws on original recordings from Sopralluoghi in Palestina (Location Hunting in Palestine), in which Pasolini’s voice expresses deep disappointment with the local landscape. The director’s disheartened voice becomes the basis for a precise, almost surgical manipulation: Yatziv weaves together images from the completed feature film and overlays them with the soundtrack from Pasolini’s visit to Israel. Within this construction, the figures of Jesus and the Apostles appear as doubles of sorts for the director and his crew. As they gaze upon the expansive Italian landscapes, the voice that emanates from them is that of the filmmaker, lamenting the land’s failure to meet his expectations.
This juxtaposition captures the moment in which the physical place is erased in favor of its myth, situating the viewer within a space of projection. The site no longer signifies a geographic point, but rather a point of departure toward the realization of a fantasy. The “Holy Land” is presented here as a nostalgic image, one that the artist infiltrates and dismantles, thereby disrupting Pasolini’s attempt to locate within it a pure past. The filmmaker’s cinematic gaze echoes that of a pilgrim: the biblical text serves as an epistemological screen, enabling a kind of temporal leap over the present in search of an imagined site.
Amir Yatziv’s video work, “This Is Jerusalem, Mr. Pasolini” (2012), takes as its point of departure the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini’s visit to Israel. In 1963, Pasolini traveled to the region to tour Christian holy sites,in a journey that was documented as part of his preparations for filming The Gospel According to St. Matthew. He visited kibbutzim in the Galilee, the shores of Tiberias, the West Bank, and divided Jerusalem. Yet the modern, inhabited land of Israel he encountered failed to match his cinematic vision. Ultimately, he chose to “reinvent” his Jerusalem and filmed his movie in southern Italy.
Text: Noam Louk
ABOUT THE VIDEO ARCHIVE
The Video Archive at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo was established in 2000. It comprises over 4000 videos by Israeli and international artists, with works from the 1960s to the present day. What distinguishes the archive is the presence of early Israeli video art – comprising the first experiments in the medium – works featured in VideoZone – International Video Art Biennial (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010) video documentation of works presented at blurrrr – International Performance Art Biennial (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009), and several works by contemporary video artists. The video archive is a hub for research and education and it functions as a pedagogical tool for several of our educational programs. Screenings based on titles that are currently present in the Archive have been presented in venues in Israel, such as the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and the Jerusalem Film Festival, and abroad at Art in General in New York, OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz (Austria), the Jewish Museum in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Tate Modern in London, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Centro da Cultura Judaica in São Paulo, and Galerie KUB in Leipzig (Germany) among others. The archive was founded with the support of the late Mr. Arye Sabinsky in memory of his mother, Elizabeth Sabinsky, and with additional support from the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation. In 2020, after twenty years from its establishment, CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo has received a grant from Artis and established a fellowship whose aim is to map, research and restructure the Video Archive with a focus on Israeli artists.