Maree Makom

Abandoned
The broken wooden shutter in the building across
is still knocking on the window pane, pounding on
the cement wall and back against the glass. No
one is inside. The blue light falling on a wall-patch
exposes long crooked crevices in the grey plaster
and a blush of mould. The adjacent balcony is
deser ted as well. On a loose nylon cord crossing it
from corner to corner hangs a sun-faded rag, the
torn edges of which quiver like a broken winged
bird in the cold breeze. The entrance to the house
has been locked several months now and the
curtain is drawn shut over the glass door. Only the
shadows of the branches of the thin tree poking
out through tattered dusty sheets, beer cans and
shreds of newspapers scattered-tossed on the
ground of the interior cour t yard, slide moonstruck
over the wall and into the dark hollows in the
cement sur face.
Video Recording Site
Florentine, a working class neighborhood in
the south of Tel Aviv
Low three-four story cement apartment
buildings housing foreign workers side by
side with older local residents and a growing
young artists’ community
Video Recording Occasion
1998. Unstructured assembly of scenes from
the neighborhood’s life
Participants
L. - An Israeli videographer. At the time in
which the scene is taking place L. is residing
in a three room apartment across from the
depicted building.