A joyous, generous and moving work repopulates the site with
a multitude of living beings. The iron cage occupies two adjacent
rooms and stretches up to the top of the four columns that
once marked the entrance hall. The three-tier structure is
simultaneously light and imposing, endowed with the audacity
to enclose a space that has lain open for millennia but also
unassuming enough to respect its original layout and above
all the all-round view offered by its ruined state at every
point. Being transparent, it allows the viewer’s gaze
to pass through and encompass the surroundings. It is inhabited
by a multitude of birds varying in size, color and value from
one tier to the next. The ground level is occupied by peacocks,
spectacular and vain, the symbol of immortality, attribute
of Juno and personification of pride, a recurrent feature
in mosaics of the Hellenistic-Roman and especially the Byzantine
eras. The inhabitant of the upper levels are far less showy,
tending toward the monochromatic, and gradually decrease in
size. This sort of reversed perspective accentuates the verticality
of the work, and not only in the physical sense. Kounellis
regards verticality in fact as a synonym of centrality, identity
and concentration, the opposite of horizontality, globalization
and dispersion. Repopulating the synagogue, the emblem of
exile, in this day and age is equivalent to confirming the
validity and vitality of the Diaspora. |
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