A Beach (2013–16)
A series of photographs taken along the beach in the Arab city of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv, Israel/Palestine, are presented with a photograph from the same place by French photographer Félix Bonfils in 1880. The buildings that are visible in Bonfils’s photograph are now demolished to make way for a modern boardwalk. The construction is a result of the occupation of Palestine and is part of the gentrification and expansion of Tel Aviv. The only signs left of the previous architecture are pieces of mosaic from floor tiles found on the beach in Jaffa, accompanied by writer Johannes Wahlström’s childhood memories.
Furthermore, the artists have extended the work into an enquiry on how a gallery context affects cultural heritage by giving it monetary value. When displayed at antique dealers in Stockholm and Paris, the floor tiles from A Beach were juxtaposed with exquisite objets d’art. They were accompanied by precise miniature replicas of the tiles, common for priceless artefacts.
Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt and Johannes Wahlström, 2013-16
Miniatures made by Maria Safronova Wahlström, 2015
Book made together with 1:2:3 (Axel von Friesen and Petter Törnqvist), B-B-B-Books, 2013