Miri Nishri's video work tells the story of a cross generation mentoring relationship, set in the 1960's between a 10 year old (Nishri herself) and an educator called Lea Egozi.
Lea Egozi was an early settler and one of the founders of Genigar Kibbutz, which was built in 1922 at the beginning of the Jewish resettlement of Palestine. In her work, Nishri presents the story of those encounters between 10 year old Nishri, which has trouble reading and writing and her elderly teacher, Lea Egozi, through a long and winding walk down memory lane.
During a private tutoring at Lea's home, Nishri the child stumbles upon a book, "Sex life after the age of 60" which is lying in the book shelf and it captures her mind. When Egozi notices that, she gifts the book to Nishri. Now, as Nishri herself is at the age her teacher once was, she embarks on a journey following the image of her former mentor and creates a series of conversations on womanhood, sexuality, pioneering and education.
In traditional Israel folk songs, the connections between the people and the land is depicted in an erotic language. Poets, propagandists, poster designers and painters in service to their country establish the image of the motherland as masochistic earth mother, benevolent, full and devoted. And as the dew drips below and the moon hangs above, as the earth joyfully spreads her legs to bring rest to the weary and rest to the labor.
In the video work "She came out of the closet" Miri Nishri, in an ironic and conscious manner, embodies Mother Earth bestowing her good graces on to her sun burned pioneering sons. It is for them her sea of grain sway in the wind to the herd song rings while her body becomes their land and she is plowed as a field and her womb is the Izrael Valley. In a reoccurring collage, the valley fields and settler homes act as the artist's dress and night gown as she dots over mount Tabor.
The video work mixes several genres, moving between documentation and imaginary through the use of surreal animation and conversations, some played out or animated. In a repeating collage, the valley fields and the settler homes appear as a dress and body to Nishri's image and through them she embodies the fertile, nurturing and child bearing Mother Erath.
Although the relationship between teacher and student, which were separated by over half a decade, was not sexual in nature, Egozi did play a key part in shaping Nishri's attitude toward sex and sexuality. One of the interviewees in the movie contemplates on the possibility that nowadays, a teacher who would dare invite a young soft spirited student into her home and lend her a book about sexuality would get into trouble and possibly lose their job.
The video raises thoughts of erotic curiosity Vs intellectual curiosity. The book which the experienced Egozi entrusted upon the naive Nishri mediated not only revolutionary anti-bourgeois ideology but also a passion for pedagogy, bestowing knowledge, gain insights, fill a painful absence with the aspiration of creating a new man, free from the burden of prejudice and religion. A feminist world with cross generational women comradery.
The work "She came out of the closet" continues Nishri's long journey in to motherhood, childbirth and fertility.
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