The 2021 Design Week in Jerusalem had as theme ‘Runaway Circus’, representing the desire for uninhibited freedom and hedonistic escapism. The curators of the Design Week aimed to revive and explore what might seem at first glance an untainted form of escapism, at least in origins — the Festival of festivals, the hall of entertainment, and wonder — the traveling Circus.

 

‘TAKEOFF' exhibited in the attic, seeks to merge fantasy with reality and to confront the audience with the simple question of ‘towards where are we heading?’. Visitors are invited to enter one of the four units, resembling the interior of a deformed aircraft, relax in authentic airplane seats and escape on a flight to nowhere. Amusingly and deceptively, The installation plays with the longing to travel of so many, after a year and a half of Corona pandemic.

 

Playing on the iconic appearance and exact dimensions of passenger aircrafts, visitors instantly are drawn to play as actors on a staged set, part of an imaginary simulation. However, after taking place, the sight of one own’s reflection is revealed. Four meters wide round glass mirrors, one in front and one in the back, face each other at an angle of 45°, creating endless reflections of the passengers. The somber space is surrounded by a projection of video artist Zohar Baranovitch and with an eerie soundtrack by Itzik Gil Avizohar.

 

Opposed to actual flights, ‘TAKEOFF’ does not transport to the next destination, neither does it bring to mind the moral cost of its carbon footprint. The installation invites visitors to indulge into a state of consciousness, of levitation and self-reflection, overall into a stage of intermediate transitions. Because what is a flight if not a transition? A passage from place to place, from reality to reality, and even from one climate to another, during which we can travel against the clock (travel back in time sometimes) and hang between heaven and earth.

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