Fallen Empires - Shai Kremer

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Résumé :
Israel?s history can be understood through its vast archaeological heritage. Its past exists not only
in the written word but also in its land, in the architecture and ruins, in the stones themselves. Each
civilization overwrites another, layer upon layer ? a sophisticated palimpsest.
A single frame can expose the sediment of thousands of years. The recycling of spaces, from one
empire to the next, shows how each sought to conquer and rule the land, all with a similar outcome:
eventual failure. Kremer shows the vestiges of this complex multicultural saga, testimonies unearthed
from the past that show a different perspective. It is landscape as a place of amnesia and erasure, for
Israel is a strategic site where the past has been buried and history veiled by natural beauty.
Kremer?s Israel exists beyond the media headlines and tourist hotspots: it is landscape as cultural
force, an instrument in the construction of national and social identity. For Kremer, it is a provocation
to critical debate about a country where different perspectives existed, and continue to exist, and
where new possibilities can be reflected upon.
Born in 1974 and raised in Israel, Shai Kremer currently lives in Tel Aviv and New York. He has exhibited
widely internationally: the Tate Modern, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York;
SF MoMA, San Francisco; Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography; Tel Aviv Museum of Art;
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Red Cross Red Crescent Museum, Geneva; Guangzhou Photo
Biennale, China; Omotesando Gallery, Tokyo ; Vittoriano Art Museum, Rome; PHotoEspa?a, Madrid.
His work is included in museum collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
SF MoMA, San Francisco; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, amongst others.