Yael Bartana’s video revolves around rites of socialization and naturalization, symbols and rituals closely linked to the value system of Israeli society and culture. During the first moments of watching Kings of the Hill, we are enthralled by the beauty of the images presented to us, and fascinated by their hyper-reality, which somehow seems unreal. But as the film progresses, we realise that what we are watching is a ritual laden with ideals belonging to the modern Israeli society. One such ideal is that of the ’new Jew’ as ’pioneer’ and ’farmer-soldier’. This ideal, fashioned by the Zionist Labor movement in the 1920s, saw the ’new Jew’ as simultaneously fighting against the soil, the Arabs and the middle-class bourgeoisie, to conquer the desert and cultivate the wilderness. This representation joined the Revisionist ideal, stressing evolution and reform, to form the image of the ’fighting gentleman,’ the ’generous and ruthless hero,’ whose guiding principle is ’to conquer the mountain or die.’
Catalog no. 706 file: Bartana, Yael
Catalog no. 831 file: History Started Playing with my Life
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