Yael Bartana's "Inferno"

Description

Yael Bartana, one of the most celebrated Israeli artists of her generation, has described her provocative film as a “historical preenactment,” commingling fact and fiction, prophesy and history.

Building on Bartana’s early video work, INFERNO explores the complexity of contemporary life. Debuting in 2013 and filmed in São Paulo, INFERNO looks at the rise of Evangelism and Neo-Pentecostalism in Brazil and their connections to the ‘Holy Land’ as well as Judaic traditions and history. Specifically, the film considers the implications of the actual construction of the third Temple of Solomon in São Paulo. Built to biblical specifications, this new temple will be a replica of the first temple in Jerusalem, the violent destruction of which signaled the diaspora of the Jewish people in the 6th century BCE. Through this vision, Bartana asks if the temple’s construction foreshadows its destruction. Using a powerful cinematic language, INFERNO collapses histories of antiquity in the Middle East with a surreal present unfolding halfway around the world.

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