The desire for space: stains in Zoltan Kluger's institutional photography. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Konopny-Decleve, Livnat; Yanay, Niza
• Is Part Of: Visual studies. Volume 34:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 66
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Visual perception -- Periodicals; Visual anthropology -- Periodicals; Visual sociology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2019.1637774
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-586X

Abstract

Abstract : The article studies the construction of Zionist space in Kluger's institutional photographs in an attempt to understand the ideological desire for space in Zionist imagistic propaganda. The analysis employs Lacanian 'stains' as well as strategies of art interpretation to suggest that behind the image of Sisyphean work of men toiling the land stands the Zionist 'law' (in contrast to the female jouissance ) which comes to signify the Jewish return to history after the fall from divine grace. This paper demonstrates by what means Kluger's photographs echoed and propagated the Zionist unconscious based on western and Christian desire for eternity and redemption of the land, even if it meant sacrificing the sons in exchange for eternal life and the return to grace.