The Eruv of Jerusalem

Image

Sophie Calle (Paris, 1953), L’Erouv de Jérusalem, Jérusalem, 1996

© Adam Rzepka, mahJ

Sophie Calle’s installation, The Eruv of Jerusalem, surrounds the viewer like the ritual enclosure in the city which, according to Jewish tradition, permits activities prohibited on Shabbat such as carrying an object from a private to a public domain. In towns and cities, eruvim (posts) delimit places where public and private spaces merge. This ambiguity is highlighted by Sophie Calle, who in her work exposes the tipping points between sentiments of intimacy and their exhibition. She complements the photographs of the posts demarcating the eruv’s perimeter with images and texts – the stations – in which she asks Jerusalem’s Israeli and Palestinian inhabitants to take her to a public place which they consider has a private dimension. In doing so, Sophie Calle is stressing the appropriation of or exclusion from territories that is such a sensitive issue in Jerusalem, and that it is not solely a question of geographical frontiers but also concerns the personal and political positions of individuals.