Hadas Tapouchi at BLANK SPACE

still from The Salute (= Hebrew = Moel-Yad). Hadas Tapouchi

I saw this video exhibited at Blankspace in Manchester recently. Unless I've totally misunderstood it, the artist is just plain wrong. It was exhibited with a similar description to the one which follows (emphasis added):

This presentation, an analysis of Israeli society, is a social experiment that provides an insight into Israeli past and present...


...The man stands in the center of Tel Aviv in 2009 and observes those passing by; men, women, and children of Sephardic and Ashkenazi backgrounds, arabs & jews...


...This presentation examines the ignorance of people towards an image that suggests a negative connotation, but does not in fact present so explicitly...


Although the observers are unsure of the true meaning of the presentation, they are inclined to follower their instinct in feeling that this presentation is an offence to them as Jews. The viewers show a type of satisfaction in being able to express their anger and hatred toward this symbol when given an external explanation by another observer. They express their frustration and feel it is validated.


It is interesting to discover to what extent people are loyal to symbols who's origin are ancient and stems from their faith, but have undergone a social interpretation.


This soldier is engaging in the act which we identify as the solute to Hitler, but in fact, it is a solute which originated in the Old Testament of the Bible in the Book of Nehemiah. It describes the audience reaction at the words of the Torah ready by Ezra "Ezra blessed the Great God and the people responded by saluting and saying Amen".


This salute, which was practiced by the Romans, was later adopted by Italy during the fascist regime and then by Nazi Germany. Due to its use in Nazi Germany, the salute is now identified with the Nazi regime and other fascist regimes. This form of salute is also popular with Arab terrorist organizations, and with large military militias such as Hezballah and Hamas. For these reasons salute is prohibited in most countries and in some places, its use is punishable by law.


The video shows a young man in a traditional European military uniform, standing in a public place, holding a salute. He looks straight ahead and says nothing. People around him can be heard asking him to leave, asking him what he's doing.


The artist seems to be trying to ignore the actual current cultural meaning of this particular salute by making a reference to one ambiguous hand gesture in the Torah. Her claim that it does not explicitly refer to Nazis is undermined by the fact that she put the man in a German - style military uniform, obviously anticipating a negative reaction. She also talks about people's satisfaction in being able to express their anger. I thought the public in the video were actually quite polite, a policeman asks the artist and man in costume to 'please leave' to avoid upsetting people. No one in that market square knew the artist's point, they thought she was just trying to upset them. And she was, wasn't she, to prove her point?

I'm willing to be proved wrong here...