Avi Mograbi’s two-channel video installation shows the imprint of religious fanaticism in Israeli society.
Mograbi presents two segments taken from his previous films August and Avenge But One of My Two Eyes, creating a new relationship between them. Mograbi juxtaposes the auditions he held for the part of Baruch Goldstein’s wife in the film “August” (Baruch Goldstein was a Jewish terrorist who opened fire on Muslims in prayer in Hebron in 1994) with the celebration of a group of Kach activists singing together: “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” (King James Version) - a text taken from the plee of the biblical Samson to his God, while he is tied to the pillars of the Philistine temple, a moment before he collapses the building on top of thousands of Philistines, his enemies and torturers, and on himself. This cry for revenge is still heard in the Middle East. Samson, the protagonist of this seminal Hebraic myth, is the object of admiration for Baruch Goldstein and for setteler groups from the religious Zionist movement, as he combines Messainism with Zionism.
Catalogue No. 789
File: Mograbi, Avi
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