The sunset motif, which has long become an empty symbol, is a salient example of the simulacrum. According to Baudrillard, the simulacrum underlies the new semiotic order that has overtaken Western culture. The frequent recurrence of romantic sunsets in advertising and cinema has led to the blurring of the boundaries between this sublime natural moment, with its dazzling spectrum of colors, and its representation, which has been transformed into an endless series of superficial and artificial kitsch images. Ziv’s choice of this motif may allude to the fact that our contemporary world no longer allows for the existence of “wonders,” which must now be searched for in one’s imagination rather than in the outside world.

Like Saint Exupery’s Little Prince, who could see the sun setting from his small star at any given moment by displacing his chair ever so slightly, this video work provides us with a collection of sunsets from different times and places, assembling them into a single concentrated moment.
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“One day,” you said to me, “I saw the sunset forty-three times!”
And a little later you added:
“You know – one loves the sunset, when one is so sad…”
“Were you so sad, then?” I asked, “on the day of the forty-three sunsets?”
But the little prince made no reply.
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

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