made of gold
A sound installation for 13 loudspeakers and piano, Ben Sira pop up gallery
The piece is made up of three layers of sound:
The first layer is short segments from the original recording of the song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav performed by Shuly Natan in 1967. The second layer is the song's melody being played on a prepared piano. Those two layers are being played in a circular motion from the 12 speakers. The third layer is made up of the Basque nationalistic folk song that Naomi Shemer is said to have been influenced by, when composing Yerushalayim Shel Zahaz. The song is played through a sub woofer speaker, generating very low frequencies that, in turn, makes the piano strings vibrate.
The work deals with the the tension between patriotism and nationalism.
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (translated: Jerusalem made of gold) is an iconic Israeli song that plays a central role in the Zionist Israeli identity. Recorded only a few weeks before the war in 1967, after which, Jerusalem had been "freed" (or occupied, semantics bears weight in this case) from Jordan.
The song is regarded Israel's unofficial anthem and some even suggest the publication of the song effected the army's battle plan to conquer Jerusalem.
