Till the End - Spirit of the Place. The Vanishing Image of Jerusalem

Sabella expresses how Jerusalem is changing rapidly and is transforming to something unknown and unfamiliar, especially for the people who grew up in it. Places are being destroyed and historical memories are being replaced. In fear of the continuing erasure of the city's memory, Sabella started wandering around the places which he felt connected to in order to document their 'existence'. He picked up a stone from each place and later printed on it an image which could have been the image of the existing location, its trace after its demolition or if the 'original' place vanished, then Sabella imagined how the place might have looked in the past.

Today, six years after the creation of this artwork, it clearly traces back how Sabella started experiencing the disappearance of Jerusalem and its transformation to an image, eventually leading to the creation of his key project jerusalem in exile (2006).

till the end, spirit of the place

2004

photo emulsion on Jerusalem stone

UNIQUE (one original)

"At each place I visited, images started to emerge on surfaces of stones--it was as if they were revealing distant memories. I picked up a stone from every place, and at the same time I photographed an image of the place."

classic jerusalem. A forgotten Jerusalem Village

"I later on printed that image on the stone; in effect each place had its image on it I tried to preserve what was left, and if there was nothing left, I tried to imagine how the place looked in the past."

from a conversation with Sara Rossino, who reviewed the solo retrospective show at the metroquadro gallery in Rivoli/Turin, Italy - May 2010

DOWNLOAD Catalogue PDF

Was this consciousness already present in Till the end? What was the meaning of this work?

"Today I understand better the essence of that experience. Till the end continued my obsession with hyperrealities from Search (1997) and End of Days (2003) where I penetrated through the unseen light an imaginary world which felt for me more real that reality itself. I started living in this constructed reality.

So I ask myself today, whether the images on the stones were early visual prophecies about what was happening to Jerusalem and its transformation into an image (eventually disappearing) and how in many ways many of these images accompanied me from childhood."

images from the retrospective solo at the Metroquadro Gallery In Rivoli/Turin, Italy (May 6 - July 17, 2010). DOWNLOAD Catalogue PDF

images of the original installation on iron pillars, outdoor at the Khalil Sakakini Gallery in Ramallah in 2004

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