Gemara | Michal Rovner

Michal Rovner, Israeli, born 1957
Gemara, 2023

Stone with video projection

Floor -2, The Ilona and Hugo Lowy Reading Halls

The image projected onto the stone was inspired by the unique traditional layout of pages of Gemara – a vital Jewish foundation text – which can be seen in the Talmudic volumes on the surrounding shelves. A closer look reveals that the apparent lines of text on the stone are actually lines of people in continuous motion. The never-ending movement is as infinite as Talmudic interpretations, or the flow of immigrants and refugees roaming the hills and valleys. The image that is reminiscent of woven fabric suggests a linguistic and conceptual connection between “text” and “textile.”