The museum’s Pit, which was created by the members of the Tav group, is now hosting a site-specific installation that artist Orna Versano Malki created especially for this space. In this work she examines her current relationship with her eldest son upon his enlistment to military combat service. The artist provides visual expression to the term “Helicopter Mom”—a nickname for a type of protective parenting that is challenged when the child is separated from the mother and the army assumes responsibility for him. The maternal instinct to protect and defend is is set in contrast to the myth of the hero, as demanded by the Israeli reality.
In the womblike underground Pit that surrounds the visitor, the artist has placed military objects: camouflage netting, a helmet, and an operational communications instrument. Among these items she has positioned a statue resembling a pregnant belly, together with sound and projection devices used to soothe babies. The juxtaposition of these objects embodies the existential and emotional paradox of the Israeli mother who is raising the next generation of soldiers.
The choice of this space and these objects articulates quotations from the artist’s son’s stories of ambushes and time spent in trenches during his military service. This is a new and unfamiliar world to the artist, and she uses it to pour out her anxieties, fears, and lack of control over the Israeli reality.
Curator : Raya Zommer-Tal