STORIES by Michal Rovner
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world’s largest museums; the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square meters (652,300 square feet).
A couple of days ago I walked through the courtyard of The Musée du Louvre. What struck me was part of an exhibit by Michal Rovner titled Stories. Immediately what caught my attention was the symmetry of the stones, and the apparent contradiction the “crack” in the wall presented.
Born in Tel Aviv in 1957, Michal Rovner studied cinema, television, photography, philosophy and art. Since moving to New York in 1987, Rovner has participated in numerous exhibitions, and is included in major museum and private collections. Her video installations have been shown at the Tate Gallery in London, at P.S.1 in New York, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and in the Whitney’s 2000 Biennial Exhibition. Michal Rovner divides her time between her farm in Israel and her studio in New York.
With a passionate interest in archeology, Michal Rovner reflects on history and its repetition – human history, the history of conflicts and exoduses, of knowledge and exchanges. Made of stones collected from hoses fallen into ruins in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, Hebron and along the border between Israel and Syria, Makom II and Makon IV were installed by Israeli and Palestinian masons. Makom, which means “place” in Hebrew, questions the fragile notion of border and plays on the ambiguity between construction and destruction.
A striking exhibit. I guess you had to be there.