the museum der moderne salzburg is presenting a comprehensive survey of israeli sculptor and video installation artist sigalit landau titled salt years. born in jerusalem (1969), landau is one of israel’s most prominent contemporary artists of her generation. presented at both of the museum’s venues — rupertinum and mönchsberg — the exhibition is the artist’s first solo show at a museum in the german-speaking countries.

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau tutu, 2017, tutu ballet skirt, coated in salt crystals
image by yotam from

 

 

for over fifteen years, the dead sea has been a source of inspiration and a laboratory for sigalit landau’s videos, photos and salt sculptures. her site-specific work, in a variety of mediums, relates to private and collective memory, archaic and utopic myths, and to present-day issues of the human condition. by using a diverse range of materials that interact with the human body, landau weaves the social with the intimate, the historical with the private, and the local with narratives of epic scale.

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau, all those grapes, 2017, fishing net (detail), coated in salt crystals
image by yotam from

 

 

almost as a ritual, landau and her team have been immersing objects in the saturated saline waters of the dead sea. some of the submerged objects are hand-made from specific and symbolic materials — fishing nets, barbed wire, personal belongings, and objects that stand for a world that has gone missing. by submersing them in the water, these sculptures are then coated in salt-crystals, becoming fragile creations imbued with beauty, reminiscent of archeological finds.

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau. salt years, exhibition view, mönchsberg, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by rainer iglar

 

 

inside the galleries of the museum, the artist arranged her conceptual readymades where she addresses questions of female identity and bodily experiences as well as the political situation in israel and the man-made disaster and consequential threat to the dead sea itself. overall, the monographic exhibition gathers expansive installations featuring salt sculptures, a series of photographs made in collaboration with yotam from, and 13 video works.

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau. salt years, exhibition view, mönchsberg, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by rainer iglar

 

 

‘powerfully moving, profoundly poetic, and pregnant with sometimes harrowing symbolism, sigalit landau’s oeuvre speaks to existential and ambivalent rites of passage and liminal experiences,’ comments thorsten sadowsky, director of the museum der moderne salzburg. ‘created in one of the most conflict-ridden regions of the world, her works bear the vision of peaceful coexistence between different people, religions, cultures, and world-views, and this vision lends them universal relevance.’

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau. salt years, exhibition view, mönchsberg, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by rainer iglar

 

 

the exhibition is accompanied by ‘salt years’,  a catalogue that showcases the works created at the dead sea while giving a visually stunning documentation of the artist’s process.

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau. salt years, exhibition view, mönchsberg, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by rainer iglar

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
sigalit landau. salt years, exhibition view, mönchsberg, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by rainer iglar

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
exhibition view, rupertinum, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by andrew phelps

salt years by sigalit landau at the museum der moderne salzburg
exhibition view, rupertinum, © museum der moderne salzburg
image by andrew phelps

 

 

exhibition info:

 

sigalit landau
salt years
july 6–november 17, 2019

 

artist talk: july 27, 3–5pm, with sigalit landau, artist, thorsten sadowsky, director and albert lichtblau, historian

 

museum der moderne salzburg
mönchsberg 32
5020 salzburg
austria

 

 

sigalit landau: salt years the book

 

text(s) by david goss, rona cohen, amitai mendelsohn, eli raz, dalia manor, tal sterngast, luna goldberg, sigalit landau, thorsten sadowsky
english
2019. 400 pp., 198 ills.
hardcover
19.30 x 26.70 cm
isbn 978-3-7757-4623-6
{hebrew supplement available}
https://www.hatjecantz.de/sigalit-landau-7599-1.html
https://www.sigalitlandau.com/sigalitlandau