Sigalit Landau's Venice Biennale Pavilion Explores Boundaries and Water

Sigalit Landau (b. 1969) represents Israel at the 2011 Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled 'One Man's Floor Is Another Man's Feelings,' a twist on the saying 'One Man's Floor Is Another Man's Ceiling.' Her work repeatedly explores the motif of a dividing line—territorial, temporal, or cultural. In the three-screen video 'Dancing for Maya' (2005), two women draw wavy lines on a beach, their paths crossing without meeting, symbolizing failed communication and peace processes in the Middle East. 'Standing on a Watermelon in the Dead Sea' (2005) shows Landau half-submerged, balancing on a watermelon, caught between air and water, past and present. In 'DeadSee' (2005), her nude body is trapped in a spiral of some five hundred watermelons tied together and floating on the Dead Sea, slowly unwinding like the thread of the Fates in Greek mythology. Some watermelons are cut open, their red flesh contrasting with green skin, suggesting random victims. The pavilion's three levels address water circulation—a resource more precious than blood in the region—along with solitary salt shoes on a frozen lake and a meeting about building a salt bridge between Israel and Jordan. A playful girl brings life to the adults' joyless world, a metaphor for Landau's perspective.