LiminalSpaces

 Sala-Manca Collective
Eternal Tabernacle
Studies in New Israeli Landscapes #4

The holiday of Sukkot is one of the three holidays mentioned in the Torah
on which it was customary to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the
period of the First and Second Temple. The name of the holiday comes
from the word Sukkah ? the name of the huts in which the Israelites
encamped in the desert during their exodus from Egypt (Exodus 33:6). (1)
The holiday’s relation to Jerusalem acquires additional meanings in the
Bible when several of the prophets refer to the city using the term
“Sukkah” ? see, for instance, Isaiah (1:8) and Amos (9:11). (2)
The holiday commemorates the exodus from Egypt by means of the
commandment to build sukkot (Leviticus 23:42) ? temporary structures
topped by a covering of branches or fronds. During the holiday, one’s
house become a “temporary residence”, while the sukkah becomes a
“permanent residence”. During the holiday, Jews are commanded to sit in
the sukkah, and to eat, study and even sleep in it during the seven days
of the holiday. One of the central customs related to the holiday is the
decoration of the sukkah; these decorations lend it a festive air and are a
means of expressing the identity and ideological outlook of its builders.
In the ultra orthodox community, dominant motifs include rabbinical
figures; the seven ushpizin, or exaltedguests, whoare symbolically
invited to the sukkah; and various religious symbols. Members of the
national-religious community adorn their sukkahs with decorations that
have a national character, such as images of the local landscape, its fauna
and flora, and the Israeli declaration of independence. Jerusalem and
related symbols are always central motifs in sukkah decoration. The
sukkah symbolizes the tension between a permanent residence and a
temporary residence ? between “the ancient ideal of wandering referred
to by the symbols of the holiday and the ideal of permanent residence,
which is at the core of Zionism”.(3)
Eternal Tabernacle (4) is composed of materials typically used to construct
a sukkah in Jerusalem: an aluminum framework that is easy to construct
and to dismantle, a prefabricated covering and other do-it-yourself-style
paraphernalia. The cloth walls surrounding the sukkah are made of
water-resistant material, which is frequently used to surround the modern
sukkah. In many sukkahs, symbols and motifs related to Jerusalem are
imprinted upon this cloth. The motifs we used for the walls of Eternal
Tabernacle are taken from an area of the separation wall in Jerusalem.
This area, which is called the “Olive Pass” was decorated by Akerstein
Industries. The decoration of the wall was commissioned by the Ministry
of Defense, in an aempt to explore the possibility of artificially
“beautifying” the separation wall and thus dissimulating its presence on
the Israeli side.
thanks to Itay Weiser, David Mauas, Mery Goldwaser, Hagar Goren

(1) The place name Sukkot is first mentionedintheTorahwhenEsauandJacobgo
their separate ways; Jacob built a hut, or Sukkah, and named the place aerit.

(2) see G. Hazan-Rokem, 1997.

(3) Ibid.

(4) Eternal Tabernacle is a paradoxical name that expresses the tension between
temporary and permanent residences. It is the name of one of the companies that
builds and dismantles sukkahs.

Sources:
1. G. Hazan-Rokem, “Representation and Dialogue in Folklore Research: The Poetics
and Politics of an Unperformed Festival,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore,
19?20, 1997?1998.
2. G. Vakulinchuk, “Studies on New Israeli Landscapes ? Notes for a Project by Sala-
Manca (Jerusalem),” unpublished manuscript.
3.www.wikipedia. org

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Sala-Manca
Group of independent Jerusalem-based artists that creates in different
fields: performance, video, installation & new media since 2000. Sala-
Manca?s works deal with poetics of translation (cultural, mediatic and
social), with textual, urban and net contexts and with the tensions between
low tech and high tech aesthetics, as well as social and political issues.
The group publishes He’arat Shula’ym Art Journal, produces and curates
Heara Art Events, organized in an independent way with no commercial
or official sponsors, co-edits no-org.net, a platform for experimental
projects in the area of net-based and digital art, organizes and curates The
Upgrade! Tel Aviv, gatherings hold by new media artists, curators and
media activists, and The New Media Cheyder [Studyroom].
salamanca00@gmail.com
www.sala-manca.net