A hand of a woman, a hand of a man – both gradually making their way in an aquarium of sand – are digging towards each other. They finally break through and touch for a short while before the man’s hand slowly disappears. The feminine hand still searching for its partner on the other end of the tunnel, retreats leaving a void. As children playing in the sand of Mediterranean beaches we practiced this game a lot. The result was a damp tunnel with a sudden sandy synchronised handshake and plenty of sand in our fingernails as well. The sound in this work is a key to understanding the conflict in which a game and a political reality are superimposed. How the leaders Hussein bin Talal, Yasser Arafat, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Olmert, Ahmad Tibi, Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Barack Obama – among many others - are relating to the conflict as unsolvable (and other scandalous lies) and, even unknowingly, deceiving a public. Who will lead the way? In “Hands” I am flipping the frame and after the dig comes a filling of the tunnel with plaster creating a solid bridge form, but also a blocked tunnel. (Egyptians and citizens of Gaza constantly dig Tunnels under the borders for the passage of essential goods and also for smuggling arms). “Hands” creates a layering to this reality and to the childhood memory with political meaning as well as romantic biographical allegory.
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