CLEANSING (2017)

Commission by the ZKM museum for  Schlossgarten Karlsruhe Thu, 03.08.2017 - Sun, 10.09.2017 

In his projection mapping »CLEANSING«, the artist Eyal Gever lets the Karlsruhe castle virtually flood and its façade davons its impressively simulated water masses.

In line with the daily reporting on the destructive events of war, terror and natural catastrophes, Gevers water floods recall at the same time the beauty as well as the fragility of all life. "CLEANSING", however, also corresponds to the promise of a cleaning process, which seems to bring with it the possibility of a new beginning.

"I'm an avid follower of the news, and sometimes I just can't take any more war, any more disasters, and you want to remind yourself there's beauty in the world.
Constant stream of bad news, war reports, and devastating images of terror, accidents and violent assault. The decay of our urban environment. Nature catastrophes, with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential for cataclysmic extremes. Waves of headlines on how immigrants are streaming and pouring into Europe, flooding the continent’s frontiers as well as bursting through national borders… water metaphors headlines! dehumanizing with its panic-inducing nature.  —- People Can’t Flood, Flow or Stream!
These every day events are my constant reminder of the fragility and beauty of human-life and what led me to create ‘Cleansing for Schlosslichtspiele 2017.

Here the Castle Karlsruhe representation acts as a metaphor of one going through a cleansing process - that could be a personal process of mental and emotional cleansing process but also it could be interpreted as a global cleansing process - our planet responding to the warming climate change causing sea levels to rise with devastating consequences. Eventually earth will turn on us because its being pushed to the edge by us - humans — and may well be heading for a crash unless we act now. 

The art work is intense - confronting us with the thought that we are at a breaking point.
 Huge stream of water are flooding and erasing the castle - and by that bearing away the past and carrying the future at the end of one and the beginning of the next - forcing us to think / fear if we Passed the Point of No Return on Climate Change … eventually the castle is reborn
leaving the viewers with the feeling of hope — that the end of the world turns out to not be the end after all, but a new beginning -  for our planet as well as ourselves".

Curated by Peter Weibel, Chairman and Artistic Director of ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe,  Music created by Ori Lichtik, Liquid simulation multiphysics YuvalKolton