see through me 2020, video 30 min in total
The Greenhouse in Ein Shemer was built by conceptual land artist Avital Geva in the 70’s. Today this work is often remembered from art critique, Sarah Hinsky, who tied Geva's greenhouse with Zionist power and challenged the migration of land art to Israel - Palestine (Hinsky 1993). In Hinsky's essay, Geva's project is an example of art reproducing modern and colonial practices. His ecology is dissected as he banned the Palestinian environment of his immediate surroundings. The greenhouse walls are bordering Europe as in the Zionist imaginary. I revisited the Ein Shemer greenhouse to find a critical approach that could better fit my generation. In comparison to other greenhouses, here, the physical properties of the greenhouse are diminished in favor of more robust symbolic meaning-making. The inhabitants talk about politics. They study ״Tikkun Olam״ as a framework for environmental thinking and experimental biological inquiries. More than the science itself, they are interested in the aesthetic representation of that field. In light of Geva's experimental methodology, I became interested in that place’s scientific imaginary and speculative ecologies. During my stay at Geva's greenhouse, I became attached to Avital Geva, as well as with that place's ambitions and ideas. Together with a group of dancers, we explored intuitive connections to environmental images , such as the beauty of the water lettuce.
