turrets

turret, 2024, curated by Rinat Edelstein, Menofim festival, Jerusalem.
The turret is a narrow structure jutting out of a larger structure. It can be used as a fortified watchtower, as a lofty height addition – for example in churches from the Gothic period – or as a structure from which the muezzin calls for prayer at the mosque. Its connotation is warlike, of a thing intended to fortify, but also as one that first and foremost seeks to present the building from which it stands out, to declare its intention. In other words, the turret is a definite territorial marking. The image of the turret has been rooted in Uri Zamir's thought for many years. He has sketched it and admired its unique sculptural form; It is symmetrical and simple, it is a building that maintains its circular structure from top to bottom, its construction is very exposed, and it feels as if its interior and exterior are built in the same way. Its architectural neutrality invites the possibility of pouring in any content. In his work, Zamir severs the local turret from its natural environment, detaches it from the walls of the Old City, multiplies it and places the turrets inside the exhibition space. He "turns them on their heads", brings them from the outside to the inside and thus gives them a different appearance. By placing the turrets in the new environment, the objects become functionless, they are taken from the structure they represent and are left exposed, ready to contain the new story that the artist will tell. Zamir added an organ to each of the turrets – a large nose. This simple action ridicules the powerful image and makes the turret almost infantile, and no less than that – human. Unlike the way turrets tower over us in reality – large and powerful – in the exhibition their scale is small, and our face-to-face encounter with them becomes less threatening. Each of the turrets has a different nose, with a different character, and when we look at these turrets we are attached to them. Into a realistic and well-detailed background penetrates something too strange to believe. By spilling over from reality into fantastic, mysterious and strange worlds, we look at the turrets differently. The alienation created by Zamir actually leads to intimacy, and the distant and enclosed territories suddenly become more accessible and open.

250x70x70, pigment, plaster, iron.



