Ruth Patir: (M)otherland at the 60th Venice Biennale

The Exhibition
The Israel Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
presents (M)otherland, a new video installation by Ruth Patir that brings together
ancient archaeology and advanced image technologies. Shifting between first-person
storytelling and the experiences shared by many, (M)otherland reflects on womanhood
and the burdens of the female body.
Patir’s work transpires on the line between personal life experiences and the ways in
which they are shaped by social constructs, including national ones. At a time when that
very nation is sustained in the most brutal attack in its history and is engaged in one of its
bloodiest wars, led by a hardline right-wing government, Patir’s insistence on the intimate
mode of address is also politically motivated. She is carving out a slice of personal space
in the highly charged arena of national representation on the international art stage. As
Patir has said: “My art does not deal with symbols or offers symbolic gestures; it is
about sharing vulnerability. Seeing all people as humans, in all their complexity, is
a political act, one that seeks to counter the violence we live under.”

The Video Works
The four videos on view on the pavilion’s second and third floors – Petah Tikva (Waiting),
Intake, Retrieval Stories, and Motherland – follow the artist after receiving an alarming
gene mutation diagnosis, as she navigates through the indignities of a male-dominated
medical establishment. They are based on real-life recordings of conversations with
doctors, friends, her mother, and an imaginary online audience that move between daily
minutiae and consequential personal dilemmas.
Surpassing the mere documentary, Patir uses ancient female figurines as avatars for
herself and the women around her. Dating from 800–600 BCE and prevalent across the
ancient Levant, these particular figurines were commonly labeled fertility figurines, yet
their true identity and function remain unknown. Researchers debate whether they served
as portrayals of goddesses, as votive offerings, protective charms, or even as objects of
erotica. However, the fact that these palm-sized statuettes were mass produced and

found in residential sites rather than in places of worship, suggests that they were in
common domestic use – an embodiment of the hopes and anxieties of women who lived
three millennia ago. In Patir’s contemporary telling, the 3D animated figurines propose an
alternative web of female affinities and identifications which traverses time and place.
The fifth video, Keening, is a later addition to the presentation. Displayed in the pavilion’s
ground level, it was conceived following the devastating events of the months leading up
to the Biennale Arte 2024 — the brutal attacks of October 7 and the viciousness of the
subsequent Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. This work features the intact ancient figurines
alongside the thousands of fragments that were left of them, today stowed away in
museum storage rooms. These forlorn, broken women come to life and take part in a
procession in a shared public expression of grief, sorrow, and rage.

The artist and curators mourn the women — Israeli and Palestinian — who lost their lives
in this horrendous war, and pay tribute to those held in captivity and to those left to pick
up the pieces. We hold steadfast the belief in two states for two peoples, living in peace.