My Ghetto

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Opening Text

Itay Ziv – My Ghetto

A few years ago, in the opening of an exhibition in Aachen, Germany, the Israeli artist Zoya Cherkassky wore star of David breastpin made of 18 karat gold engraved with the word JUDE. What was once a symbol of humiliation became an expensive piece of jewelry which the artist wore proudly. With this artistic act she charged the symbol with respect and beauty. Zoya, born in Kiev, immigrated to Israel in her youth.
She said in an interview: “I’m Jewish and I feel Jewish. In Russia this is something you discover at one point in your life and realize that it is a chronic disease.”
This art work provoked extreme reactions, both negative and positive. Some expressed appreciation and others anger over the way Cherkassky handled such a loaded subject. It is impossible to imagine such a direct artistic statement 40, 20 or even 15 years ago. References to the ‘Shoa’ has been present in Israeli art for many years now, as they are present in all social and cultural aspects in Israel. This is part of everyday life. There are even some who say about themselves: we are also 2nd generation survivors, only our parents were not there.

Amongst the artists who deal directly with that topic, there are many, like Itay Ziv, who are members of the 3rd generation. They are the grandchildren of the survivors, the ones who got to hear the stories. Secrets that were kept from family and relatives for decades began slowly to infiltrate into the ears of the youngsters, skipping a generation. Things that survivors did not tell their own children are now being told to the grandchildren. This younger generation has more distance to the actual occurrences. They grew up on films and television programs and owns the historical distance that allows a different perspective . There is more freedom to use images and materials that are ingrained in memory, now they become part of the artistic performance.
Art in Israel in recent years dares to approach controversial topics, like the Shoa., and to offer new perspectives about them. It no longer has to prove a moral capacity or social critique, but is bound only to the world of art.

The artist Itay Ziv, born in Israel in 1976, creates in his art a fabricated autobiography. With the help of friends and family he invents an entire life. Over a period of time, he places them in a staged environment, creating fictional life stories and characters that he then photographs.
Ziv explains and says:“My work process is rooted in study and exploration, examining authentic and fictitious identities. The photograph itself is the result of a creative process and offers an alternative to everyday life. I invent an environment to see whether I can attain the truth. “
About a year ago, while we were working on another exhibition, I visited Ziv at his studio in the rijksakademie. Packages, plastic and cloth bags filled with cloths and bundled up blankets were scattered all over the floor, before a journey. Around us on the walls I saw a plan of a neighbourhood quarter, marked with houses and streets. Next to black and white pictures of people dressed up as in the 30’s, sitting in their house, chatting on the stairs or in the yard by the window, making everyday gestures.

In the plan of the neighborhood quarter Ziv marked the ‘house’ that he supposedly lives in, within the Ghetto. In the black and white photos, he photographed himself with friends from ‘there’ and prepared parcels for a trip.
He worked on ‘his own Ghetto’. The characters, the parcels - it all looked familiar. Ziv used familiar images that come from our collective memory but invented a new installation.
While working on this project Ziv referred to books, academic research, testimonies and descriptions. But all this was not enough, and he decided to go to Poland himself to learn more about the Ghettos. He wanted to know what that ‘there’ was all about.
With the sensations of shock and helplessness, with the awful feeling that perhaps art cannot cope with what happened , Ziv created upon his return a work that is located between nightmare and reality. For a moment we wonder where the border between them lies, or maybe there are no borders at all. The results of Ziv’s journey to Poland and the journey in his studio are here in front of us.

In the work “My Ghetto” Ziv created a ‘super’ Ghetto, one that symbolizes the meaning of the term. It has no geographical orientation or location, it is derived from the artist’s imagination and perhaps exists in all of our imaginations.