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Sion

Silent | 11 min | b&w | 16 mm film converted to DVD | Video Installation / movie theater | France | 2006

The action takes place in the Louvre Museum. Ronit Elkabetz, the actress, appears as the allegorical embodiement of Jerusalem. The camera follows her as she is walking in the Department of the Levant. She is clad in black and carries a flag of the same color. Jerusalem – both queen and godess – is at the same time this woman in exile, empoverished and exhausted by the wars of men who have been fighting and colonizing her body for centuries. She wanders in the Louvre Museum in search for visual objects - either religious or biblical – left by the civilisations who physically occupied her and who disappeared now. But she cannot find any sign of herself, of her body throughout this wandering. Jerusalem finds herself at the crossing of two galleries where different symbols of the West are gathered. She is victim of violent acts performed by a strange dark shape. A king with his servant brings her a magnificent dress: now Jerusalem leaves off her exile plight.

The scenes shot in the Louvre were conceived as performances during the shooting. The narrative stemmed from those different performances in 16mm. The reappropriation of the silent film genre generates a metaphysical dimension here: this acts as a break with the present time.

This short-film, especially conceived for the auditorium of the Louvre Museum, is based on the rushes of the film Zion. It was shot in the section of the Levant and in the French and Italian galleries of paintings.

Credits