Publication:
Ella Littwitz: Facts on the Ground
Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv and S.M.A.K., Ghent
2021
Edited by Nicola Trezzi
Texts by Sergio Edelsztein, Philippe Van Cauteren
English
112 pages
Softcover, 16.5 × 23.5 cm
ISBN 9788867494743
Published by Mousse Publishing
Ella Littwitz investigates political, social, and cultural landscapes by appropriating and shifting specific elements connected to the land. Pivotal to her practice the constant desire of humans to create sovereign ideologies by drawing limits, borders, and frontiers, sometimes even controlling nature and moving soil. Littwitz’s interest in a specific stretch of land—namely Israel and Palestinian territories—stems from its status as a crossroads of religions, geography, and politics; water, soil, and sky; mythologies, beliefs, and momentous transitions. Littwitz’s works echo its biblical and modern narratives, presenting us with diverse examples of transition, transfiguration, and the formation of political constructs through acts of belief. In her cosmos, the field of action comprises both the artistic objects she presents to us and their non-presence in their original sites. Trail markers removed from a path, tin triangles that indicated minefields, floaters that once marked the border between Jordan and Israel, barrels that delineated military firing ranges, and books that once had a place on people’s shelves are all elements intended to trigger personal and collective memories, and thereby probe received assumptions and beliefs.