Reflection

June 2022 - June 2023

The first video and sound installation to be exhibited in the historical Pool of the Arches, Ramle. Dor Zlekha Levy created the site-specific artwork with the support of the Ramle Municipality, Ramle Foundation, and Contemporary Art Center, Ramle – CACR. Visitors are invited to experience a unique cultural journey of ideas in which the splendid interior of the Pool of the Arches is revealed in its entirety.

The artwork focuses on liturgical musical selections sung simultaneously in Hebrew and Arabic, heard through 8 speakers hung from the ceiling of the Pool. Circular images are projected on the walls, the images based on ancient musical instruments photographed while being played: taut drumskins and a decorated opening of an oud resonance box. The installation emphasizes the Pool of the Arches’ unique aesthetics and the movement in space – rowing through the water, creating moving ripples – while visitors listen to the different musical sections.

REFLECTION is based on popular Arabic songs to whose melodies Jewish cantors set Hebrew words, creating piyyutim (Jewish liturgical hymns) expressing love of God and yearning for the Redemption. The Arabic love songs are identified with popular singers, such as Fairuz or Sabah Fakhri. The melody is the same, thus hearing the piyyutim and the songs simultaneously, creates complex harmonic relationships between the Arabic and the Hebrew voices.

Dor Zlekha Levy is a video and sound artist whose work engages in preserving and processing personal and collective memories. Forgotten voices are revived in his works, to be heard anew.

Zlekha Levy is the recipient of the Zoom Prize for a Young Israeli Artist (2016); the Ministry of Culture Award for a Young Artist (2017); and an Artport Residency (2020). He is currently a lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, as well as engaging in education in various community settings. REFLECTION will host community and educational activities, including meetings with the artist and curator with students from high schools and junior high schools, with many additional and varied audiences.

The Pool of the Arches was inaugurated in the year 789 under the Muslim rule of the region as part of the water supply system. It was the setting for one of the scenes of legendary film Hasamba and the Deserted Youth (1971). Pool of the Arches is currently a leading tourism site, where a new Visitors’ Center will soon open. It took about a year to mount Reflection in this historical site, since there were tremendous technical challenges involved.

The Contemporary Art Center, Ramle-CACR opened in 2019, an initiative of the Ramle Municipality and the Ramle Foundation. Headed by Director Ron Peled and Chief Curator Dr. Smadar Sheffi, the CACR hosts temporary exhibitions and is a place for discussions of present and future challenges.

Generous support from the Pais Council for Culture and Art, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Art Lane Fund, and Artport Tel Aviv Art Center made this exhibition possible.

Reflection

A video and sound installation, 2021-2022

by Dor Zlekha Levy

Musical Arrangements & Director: Yaniv Raba

Vocals: Yahala Lachmish, Dema Kablan, Gil Rabi

Oud: Yaniv Raba

Percussion: Roei Friedman

Mix, Additional Production: Aviad Zinemanas

Cinematography: Nadav Porat-Chomsky

Installation photos: Ron Peled

Length: approx. 20 min.

Contemporary Art Center, Ramle-CACR