Curator: Renate Buschmann
When Ariane Littman-Cohen decided on an installation in foyer of the Ministry of Economics Affairs, what attracted her most was the outer wall of the place, glassed from floor to ceiling. Such a wall has linking as well as dividing characteristics: on the one hand, it allows the interior to profit from the atmosphere of the exterior space; on the other hand, it protects the interior from weathering. From the foyer one gazes out onto a green space which has the appearance of an unassuming vestige of nature in the urban surroundings. Precisely on this line of separation between the inside and the outside, between the area of human influence and, despite every intervention of civilization, the area of nature’s influence, Littman-Cohen places her installation “Holy Waters” and thus establishes a connection to her “Homage to Joseph Beuys,” a planting of an olive tree in that green space.
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In almost all her works, Littman-Cohen questions the conflicting image of the “holy Land,” which is confronted with the reality of an up-and-coming, conflict-laden state. In the case of “Eden Water,” the biblical connotation is used as a marketing strategy. “Holy Water,” ‘Holy Earth,” “Olive Oil” and “Holy Incense” from the “Holy Land” packed in tiny bottles, are among the souvenirs that any pilgrims and tourist can find in shops selling devotional objects in Jerusalem’s Old City.
see:
Renate Buschmann, Junge Kunst Aus Israel, Ministerium fur Wirtshaft und Mittelstand, Technologie und Verkehr, Dusseldorf, 1998
