Festival of Lights in Berlin

 

The German-Israeli “House of Cards” at the Festival of Lights is art that lights up the eyes.

 

The larger-than-life sized house of cards which is illuminated at nightfall weighs in at almost four tons. The sturdy construction of steel and plastic created by Israeli-German artist duo Merav Eitan and Gaston Zahr withstands the elements, yet the “House of Cards” appears fragile, as if it might collapse any minute. During Berlin’s Festival of Lights in October Eitan and Zahr light up Potsdamer Platz with their playful installation. The project marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel is being shown at the Festival in cooperation with the embassy of the State of Israel.  

Mr. Zahr, you and your partner live as a German-Israeli artist duo in Haifa. Now you are exhibiting your “House of Cards” for the first time in Germany. Is that something special for you?

Yes, it is like a coming home of sorts: I originally come from Cottbus, but have spent the last 15 years in Israel. We have already exhibited the “House of Cards” in Jerusalem, Milan and Amsterdam, but we normally also work with international artists. This time it is different, more personal: Bringing the installation to Berlin gives us the opportunity to express ourselves in this “German-Israeli” relationship.

Do politics, German-Israeli history play a major role?

Not at all. After all, a “House of Cards” is in principle a fixed format. As regards the king card we first asked ourselves: Who are the kings and queens for us? Naturally, you could take contemporary politicians. But Merkel and Netanjahu as kings? And before you know it you have the problem: Who else do you take, and who not? We did not want to politicize it – or end up with the whole thing resembling a caricature. Then we both created our kings ourselves.   

What do you mean?

We simply took a look at our surroundings: Haifa is a very open city, it has a very multicultural character. People of all cultures and religions work together there – in total contrast to Jerusalem, where they all have their own quarters, and life is much more segregated. Haifa is representative of the liberal Israel, which is why you have totally different people there, including strange figures. When I talked to my partner Merav about these figures we realized that everyone sees these people with their own eyes. Then we tried to also express our dialogue about this in the cards. Which is why the themes tend to reflect the stories of the people and not so much the people themselves. All age groups are represented: From a young girl, namely our “Queen of Hearts”, through to a pensioner.

Now German visitors to the Festival of Lights will meet “your” people from Haifa – an interesting form of German-Israeli encounter ...

Yes, because they will meet anti-heroes: The people on the cards have real names, they are people everyone recognizes, whom everyone can identify with. For example, there is a king, who has backache …

What difference does it make showing the light installation in Berlin rather than in Jerusalem?

In Israel you have to deliver a first-rate light show because people are very impatient and very quickly decide whether they like something or not. If they have not seen everything in two minutes it gets the thumbs down. In Europe it is just the opposite – people here take time. Naturally, whether we give visitors a long time to look at every single card or instead opt more for a quick, flashy light show depends on the kind of place where we erect the “House of Cards”. We want to fit in, to find the right relationship to the location, and potentially to other installations there. Something playful like our “House of Cards” is sure to do Potsdamer Platz good. 

What gave you the idea to realize such a huge house of cards?

Originally we both worked together in an architect’s office, but we wanted greater artistic scope in what we did, which is why we set up our own office to realize our creative ideas. For example, in Jerusalem we showed a large sculpture, a prima ballerina music box. It was very girly and playful, I searched around for all sorts of jewellery, even glued diamonds on it. Then I said to my partner: The next thing will be more of a “boy’s project”, something that I can identify with more.

Did your children – you and your partner have six – inspire you to the “House of Cards”-installation?

Possibly. You play with the kids – and suddenly you have an idea at the back of your mind. We did want to create something that made children say: Wow! Look at that, cool! Basically, we want to win over people’s hearts with the installation. Naturally you can associate a house of cards with ideas critical of society, such as: “We all have to stick together. When you pull out a card, the whole system collapses.” But we don’t want to pre-define what people think. Our installation is a starting point for thinking about things – nothing more. It does not contain the one truth. An experience we bring with us from Israel: It is much more difficult there to find things in common between the various groups, between the Jews, the Arabs. There are these daily tensions that nobody really wants any more. So you look for things people have in common. Like the light in a child’s eyes: you find that on all sides.