khôra, 2011

"Khôra" is a site-specific action and installation conceived for Ianês’ solo show "Emet" (meaning 'truth' in Hebrew) at the Centre for the Jewish Culture in São Paulo, Brazil. The exhibition was the outcome of a three-month residency at the renowned Digital Art Lab in Holon, Israel, known for its innovative and boundary-pushing digital art projects. For this distinctive action, Ianês took the Israeli flag, turned it black and white, removed the horizontal stripes – thus disfiguring it – and applied a mathematical serial progression to its main symbol, the six-pointed star (the Magen David), resulting in six flags embroidered with stars designed with five to ten corners/angles. The flags were raised weekly, three at a time, on the flagpoles of the institution. These flagpoles typically display the Israeli and the Brazilian flags, in addition to the flag of the state of São Paulo. By doing so, Ianês has questioned the construction of nationality and national identity, and demystified patriotic feelings associated with an ethnic-centred Nation-State. This thought-provoking action invites us to reconsider our understanding of national identity.