Shabbat

34 x 22 x 2 cm, ready made, hard cover, collages, cut outs, tempera paintings, one of a kind

This is a facsimile of Or Hahaim – (Light of Life) an important work of commentaries and interpretations of the Pentautech, by the Talmudic scholar and Kabbalist Chaim Ibn Attar, first published in Morocco in 1742. This one was printed in Budapest, Hungary, dated 1973. Among the many rules the book contains, it also explains how to observe the day of Shabbat – the forth commandment, one of the most sacred commandments, not denying but emphasizing behavior. I invited to my Shabbat the three suprematists Aleksei Kruchonykh, Mikhail Matyushin and Kazimir Malevich. These three wrote the opera Victory over the Sun (Russian: Победа над Cолнцем) premiered in 1913 in Saint Petersburg. Shabbat begins when the sun goes down; in the opera the sun was to be captured by the protagonists. Malevich designed the costumes and stage so I incorporated his characters. It left me reflecting about the sacred and common, the light and shadows and how to keep spirituality alive.