Yael Bartana | Kings of the Hill, video, 2003

Curator: Dalia Levin

July 5, 2003 - Oct. 18, 2003

יעל ברתנא
Thoughts about Place, Men and Technology following Yael Bartana’s Kings of the Hill
Yael Bartana’s video revolves around rites of socialization and naturalization, symbols and rituals closely linked to the value system of Israeli society and culture. In this piece Bartana assumes the position of an anthropologist, pointing at a western social phenomenon characteristic of a sector of the upper-middle class male population. Reading the work in the local context allows one to explore the forces underlying Israeli society and the myths on which we were raised.

A white jeep is parked diagonally on a sand dune against the backdrop of a blue sea – this is the opening shot of Kings of the Hill photographed in early 2003 on the Tel Aviv Beach. The photography and editing focus on the man isolated within an experience of power and success. The man in the car is isolated within a translucent capsule of private space, busy with his personal victory in conquering the hill. Once he succeeds, the satisfaction is short-lived, for he immediately goes back to repeat the process all over again. The photographed subjects seem to be identified with their vehicles; they become one with the powerful machine. The engine sounds blend with the murmur of sea waves. The cars’ lights emerge like spotlights from behind the twilight red hills. At first we are misled and enchanted by the beautiful images, but the more we see, the more profoundly we realize that we are watching the covering of a ritual replete with “ideal” values through which powers and myths that accompany Israeli society are reflected. The secular Zionist enterprise is founded on the ideal of the “New Jew” as an embodiment of the realization of Zionism and the concept of redemption. That ideal, shaped by the Zionist Labor Movement, spawned the figure of the farmer-soldier “pioneer” who battles with the land, the Arabs, and the bourgeoisie, and whose goal is to “conquer the desert and make it bloom.” That image united with the Revisionist ideal image of the “New Jew,” the fighting gentleman, a “generous and cruel hero” whose motto is “either conquer the hill or die.”

The car is the most quintessential product and symbol of the Industrial Revolution. When the Model-T Ford was introduced on the market, it was accompanied by the slogan “a car for every worker.” Its success lay in a combination of production line standardization originating in Gutenberg’s printing press, and the wisdom that produced the first “classless” society. The willingness to accept the car as a symbol and a status, and to publicize the use of spacious models for the executive class, is the trademark not of the car, but rather of the split brought about by capitalism in reshaping norms of class, rank and function.

Open meetings of groups of men driving All-Terrain Vehicles are held throughout the world, provoking hostile responses on the part of the environmentalist community. The increase in the number of ATVs on urban roads may be traced back to some point in the mid-1990s, concurrent with the dot.com prosperity. The car is a fashion item, an economic and social status symbol, and more than any other product, it is traded by means of its image beyond practical functionality. In his book Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan dedicates an entire chapter entitled “The Mechanical Bride” to the car’s place in the development of the electronic technologies. He suggests to car manufacturers to follow the successful comeback of the horse, which was transformed from a “means of transport” to a leisure pastime. He predicts that vehicles as a major mode of transportation will lose their place with the development of remote control technologies such as teleporting.
Challenge driving is a perfect sport for masculine technologies that celebrate competition. The male identifies the car with the bullet shape, experiencing the thrill of orgasm, death and future. Driving with 4-wheel drive is charged with social as well as personal meanings. The motor vehicle is the modern incarnation of the cowboy’s horse or the mythological Pegasus. The experience of flirting with danger plays an important role in ATV driving. There is a sense of achievement and challenge that is reinforced by overcoming the danger, as an experience of control in the face of death.

While her earlier works delved into rituals and symbols identified with the State of Israel, here Yael Bartana follows a social ritual. Most rites are based on the principle of recurrence – repeating the same rituals linked with holidays and festive days or those marking private or public events, over and over again. The steady annual repetition generates a sense of constancy and stability. Similarly, our daily, routine actions acquire an air of a ritual with fixed rules that we often set for ourselves. As we grow older, we cling to our private rituals, feeling that they are unique to us and express our values and worldview.

Galit Eilat

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Yael Bartana

Yael Bartana | Kings of the Hill, video, 2003

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