Yael Bartana

Peering through the window-like frame of the video installation Ad De'lo Yoda , the viewer's gaze opens up onto a narrow black shaft embedded in the wall, which then ends in a rear-projection. Like a corridor, it leads to a half-open door in the projection. The film continues on spatially in the installation; the borders between the two levels merge together. A boy is standing in the window frame. With his back turned to the viewer, he gazes into a room in which orthodox Jewish boys and men are dancing in a circle while holding hands. The atmosphere seems jolly; tables have been pushed in front of bookshelves to make room for the dance floor. While the younger dancers are dressed as Persians, with gold and silver-coloured vests over white shirts and most of them with red or gold-coloured Oriental caps on their heads, the older dancers are wearing black suits and hats. The boy in the foreground, who is also dressed in Persian fashion, observes the scene with curiosity from the sidelines. Apart from a brief conversation with one of the revelers, he lingers on the fringes, uninvolved in what is going on. The music the dancers are moving to, as well as their voices and exclamations, cannot be heard. Ad De-lo Yoda is one of the few video installations by Yael Bartana that forgoes audio elements completely. In a single shot, the camera documents the celebrations on the occasion of the Purim festival - an event commemorating the rescue of the Jewish people from the impending danger in the Persian diaspora. The celebration takes place in a Yeshiva school in the orthodox suburb of Bnei Brak. The view into the classroom is fragmentary, since the window and the window frame block one's view and dominate half of the visual composition. A second door through which people are continually entering and exiting further limits a view of the background. Like a voyeur, the exhibitor watches the celebration through the slightly open window, the darkness of the corridor protecting him. The slowing down of the original documentary material, as well as the observer's position as defined by the installation, evoke a strange feeling of distance. The title of the work, Ad De'lo Yoda, refers to the Purim requirement to celebrate and drink "until one does not know (ad de'lo yoda) the difference between 'cursed is Haman' and 'blessed is Mordechai'." Purim is the only festival during which orthodox Jews are also permitted to drink alcohol. The young boy in the foreground, simultaneously and outsider and a participant, seems to be waiting and considering whether he likewise should join in on the celebrations. (from: Yael Bartana, exh.cat. Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hatje Cantz, 2007, p. 61)