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In memory of my father, Ben Zion

 

"He laid down lines of feathers, beginning with the smallest, following the shorter with longer ones….

he fitted the newly created wings on the boy’s shoulders... Between work and warnings, the aging man’s cheeks were wet with tears... the wax melted….  the sight of the feathers on the waves..." ( Ovid, Metamorphoses)

 

A worker called Daedalus falls off a crane.

His daughter works in the feather archives – sorting, cataloging, organizing and numbering feathers on silent scientific plates. A quivering tension permeates the archive: ghosts of dismembered creatures yearn to return to their bodies, to flight. A boy called Michael puts on a puppet show with his teacher as part of a Greek mythology class in the Jaffa bilingual school. Places and characters intermingle, creating impossible opposites and connections, delicate and hidden. 

 

Puppet theater: Michael Tumian

German feather archive: Alexander Hess

Video editing: Nimrod Zin

Crane construction: Tal Sharir

Audio: Mashrou’ Leila, Marrikh

Untitled 17th century relief, Musée Antoine Vivenel, Compiègne, France