Kept Alive

Kept Alive is a three-channel video and photo installation, giving a unique view on repetitive actions, taken place on Jerusalem’s Mountain of Rest. The project documentary approach is employed to address the enormous cemetery’s three primary activities: construction, burial, and visitation. Filming on location for seven month, the work investigates intersections between the living and the dead. The multi-channel video installation reconstructs the mountain, in which all the cemetery’s conflicting processes occur simultaneously. The work’s sound is artificially constructed, sampled from various sources and pieced together in a studio. This almost real overlay re-choreographs the Mountain of Rest, and function as another investigation and re-enacting of the events, isolating gestures and movements, giving them new roles.

*Kept Alive (a literal translation from Hebrew) refers to the text engraved upon headstones to reserve pre-purchased burial spots. The custom arose from bureaucratic necessity, but grew to function as a popular charm to ensure a healthy and long life for the purchaser.