MIHRAB, 2016
Interactive Installation by Ira Resnick & Talia Janover
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The installation titled “Mihrab” addresses the growing need for awareness and the search for inner truth and self-definition.
The mihrab is a niche in an interior wall of a mosque, indicating for the Muslim worshiper the direction of prayer: toward the Kaaba, in Mecca. It suggests a door or gateway to Mecca, and holds pride of place in the Museum for Islamic Art, at the center of the main hall, opposite the entrance. The installation is located directly in front of the mihrab – and exists only through the interaction of the visitor.
Trapped within each glass structure is a black-plastic half-cylinder that acquires its arch-like shape from the niche of the mihrab. Engraved on the cylindrical surface, at eye level, in the form of a diamond, is a sentence from a poem of Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai. The visitor standing on the metal sheet sees his or her double reflection in the two structures, and at the same time the Hebrew poem behind the glass.
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The original mihrab is a symbolic gateway for prayer, which then passes through the Kaaba to the Divine, who receives and ‘internalizes’ it; but the gate created by the installation restores and reflects the visitor’s own image, creating an encounter with him- or herself.
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Presented at:
'Repositioning: Old Objects, New Artworks' Exhibition curated by Alon Razgour at the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem
Purchased - for the museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem collection
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Link to exhibition catalogue >> HERE
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