Flesh-Eating Stone (2022)

Municipal Gallery, Jerusalem

Sarcophagus [sarkophagps] is a Greek word meaning “flesh-eating,” and relates to the devouring qualities of a stone coffin. With lines simulating a computer game or a 3D model, Eli Petel created a sculpture mimicking a life-size sarcophagus. On its sides, the slogan "Sometimes we don't have to use the same word,” identified with the Black Panthers, is inscribed in Greek, in addition to a transliteration of the artist’s name.

Like many ancient exhibits, and as a tribute to the violent history of archeology as a scientific and imperialist practice, the sarcophagus created by Petel already carries the scars of looting and aging; and makes us wonder, is it an object of the past? Has it undergone the process of reservation? Or does it serve as an artifact of the future? Is its presence in a public space a sign of injustice or reparation?

The sculpture is placed in a territory saturated with reconstruction, rewriting, concealing, and erasure, in accordance with the national-cultural narrative of the city of Tel Aviv. Hamesila Park, Ha Tachana complex, the IDF Museum, Neve Tzedek neighborhood, and the remains of the Manashia neighborhood – all are spaces of preservation, prioritization, and capitalization from a narrated past. Together, they form a kind of archaeological mound whose external layer is the present time. Through the placement of an image that resists the concept of authenticity, Petel invites us to reexamine the power of culture, and to ask ourselves, is it merely a flesh eating stone?