Tel aviv is water
A 6 channel sound installation for the , Tel Aviv City Museum ,2024
Curated by: Galit Gaon and Hadassa Cohen
contemplate the miraculous. "Tel Aviv is water" is a book of poetry by Jeremy Vogel based on the saying of Thales, "Everything is water." In this work, Vogel's text is read from the poet's mouth and processed into a sound creation that stands on the seam between text and music.
When I moved from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, I looked in amazement at all the people sitting in the coffee shops who were staring into the air as if they were pouring out an idea from the urban void - and at the same time they were leaning and typing away on their silver laptops. The feeling of idleness, wandering thoughts, writing and drinking coffee awakened my Jerusalem spirit. In my opinion, the poets and creators engaged in the craft of dreaming are the heart of the city of Tel Aviv.
Jeremy Vogel's book is a distillation of the possibility to become nullified, and not only in the sense of not doing, but also in the sense of nullification from the general, the national and the political: nullification which is the essence.
Vogel writes an oceanic existential thought (from the language of the ocean) that has its seat here in Allenby, in Yehuda Halevi and Ahad Ha'am. According to him, Tel-Aviv is the navel of the world, and in it the great questions of existence are asked - an existence in which the city fights for its right to continue to be abolished. "Everything is water" (Thales) and "Tel Aviv is water" (Fogel). I strive to flood this fluidity of sweaty Tel Aviv in my sound work.
While wandering through the museum, the audience is invited to stop for an intimate pause and listen to Vogel's words turning into sound and Tel Aviv turning into water.
