Tuesday 08.09.16

OHK Reflects on the Urban Imaginary in its “Letters to Jerusalem” Art Installation

When Gertrude Bell, a British traveler rivaled only by T. E. Lawrence in her perspicacity, arrived in Jerusalem in December of 1899, she was distinctly unimpressed by what she found. Her first inkling that the Holy Land was not quite as she had imagined may have come during her ocean voyage from Odessa to Jaffa, a lone Brit crammed aboard a rickety boat with 400 destitute Russian pilgrims. Roaming the streets of Jerusalem in the cold winter rain, she struggled to reconcile the reality of the city with the lithographs of her youth: “One’s first impression of Jerusalem is extremely interesting, but certainly not pleasing. The walls are splendid, but all the holy places are marred by being built over with hideous churches of all different sects.” A guest of Dr. Fritz Rosen, the German Consul to Jerusalem, she was invited to tour the old German Consulate in the heart of the Muslim Quarter, known colloquially as “Dar al-Consul”. Her photos of the alleyways surrounding the complex are among the oldest photographic records of the site, and capture the lives of everyday Jerusalemites. The simplicity of the scenes contrasted with Bell’s imagination of the site, once the local outpost of one the world’s rising industrial powers.

The Dar al-Consul complex is but one example of the liminal space that Jerusalem occupies between the real and the imagined. The very diversity of Jerusalem – a diversity of beliefs, sentiments, languages, and architectural forms – cultivates this mystique, and has inspired a tremendous volume of photographs, sketches, lithographs, travelogues, and above all, letters. The letters of 19th century travelers like Gertrude Bell are a window into the uneasy space between imagination and reality, animated by lurid descriptions of street scenes, the hardships pilgrims and consular officials faced, and glimmers of the sacred among the profane. Dar al-Consul embodies this complex imaginary: an accretion of various structures, some dating from as early as the 13th century, the complex has variously housed soap manufacturing, a consulate of one of the Great Powers, quarters for the Latin Patriarchate, and the homes of everyday inhabitants of the Old City.

In 2015, the Custodia Terræ Sanctæ, a Franciscan Order that has served as custodian of the Catholic holy sites in Jerusalem since the 13th century, asked the OHK team to advise on the rehabilitation of the Dar al-Consul. We spent months mapping the complex, teasing out the spatial, historical, and literary links between the complex and its Old City surroundings, trying to situate the Dar al-Consul not only within its urban context but within the incredible, centuries-old literary tradition of travel letters from Jerusalem. What began as an exercise in placemaking became a labor of love. As we delved into the photographs, sketches, and letters, searching for historical vestiges of the complex, we discovered a complex interplay between what Jerusalem means for a resident of the city and what it means for those who have never set foot within the Old City’s walls but nonetheless experience it vividly and viscerally through their own dreams and aspirations. Above and beyond our responsibilities as consultants, we felt moved to celebrate the Custody’s rehabilitation of the Dar al-Consul and crystallize our personal wonder at the Jerusalem’s diversity. We designed an interactive art installation for the Complex’s grandest and oldest hall in an effort to transform the perception of space and meaning, merge the historical and contemporary realities of the site, and invoke the diversity that inheres between reality and imagination.

The installation – “Letters to Jerusalem” – reverses the historical flow of letters out of Jerusalem, allowing visitors and residents to write letters to Jerusalem, which become indelible parts of the Dar al-Consul site. Much like the Parisian Pont des Arts’ locks left by visiting couples as a testament to their experience of the city (though better controlled and curated), Letters to Jerusalem invites reflection and engagement. The installation is to be situated in one of the largest spaces within the Complex, a relatively airy volume that contrasts with the compact, barrel and cross-vaulted chambers throughout the rest of the site. The physical “heart” of the Dar al-Consul, the hall lies at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west axes of the site, houses a stairway linking the lower and upper levels of the Complex, and contains what is believed to be the oldest wall section in the entire Complex. A skylight will puncture the concrete slab roof dating from the 20th century, providing a well of light that further illuminates the space. Our development program for the complex has proposed a “productivity space” in the hall and its adjacent spaces – a hybrid café and work area that will be the first of its kind in East Jerusalem and which will be a highly animated and vibrant space. The installation is intended to feed off of and contribute to that energy, rather than being a museum piece.

The piece itself is a large-scale steel sculpture, designed in dialogue with the hall to extend from the ground to the skylight some twenty feet above. The form of the sculpture is inspired by the oak and olive trees so central to Jerusalem’s ecological identity but retains a geometric sensibility. The branches of the tree will terminate in leaves fashioned as a variety of symbolic shapes which act as hooks and loops upon which visitors can affix their own personal letters to Jerusalem. The symbols of the three great monotheistic faiths infuse the alleys of the Old City and animate its skyline, while the traditional lion and citadel tower stand as symbols of the city, and the leaves of the installation have been deigned to capture these myriad symbols – the religious and the secular, the ancient and the modern, the traditional and the aspirational. The installation will be constructed in-situ, and will become a signature and iconic attraction for the complex as a whole.

The interactivity of the installation is realized through three mechanisms. Firstly, the tree will “grow” over a twenty-year horizon, with additional branches being added annually as a testament to the resilience of Jerusalem. We envision a celebration around each annual evolution, in which the public can watch the artist install the latest extension and celebrate Jerusalem as a “city eternal”. Secondly, visitors to the installation at Dar al-Consul will be invited to interact with the tree whenever they visit. An annual series of postcards will be designed and printed as part of the installation, incorporating original photographs, correspondence, literary manuscripts, and paintings (including new artist impressions). Visitors will be encouraged to write letters (anonymous or otherwise) to Jerusalem onto postcards and hang them on the symbol leaves, as if flowers or fruit. Each postcard will have a space to write up to five emails, and after a certain curation period or when the tree has fully “fruited,” the cards will be taken down, scanned, and emailed to the addresses on the card. Finally, these scanned letters will be published on a dedicated online installation showcase. This technological integration is symbolic in its own right – a heartfelt declaration that Jerusalem’s heritage is not suspended in time, but evolves with the rest of the world.

This installation is a gesture of our personal passion for Jerusalem. But even more than that, it is an intervention that is in dialogue with Jerusalem’s urban imaginary. The geometric steel of the installation is in dialogue with the stone walls of the complex, which almost hum with the weight of history. The location of the installation is in dialogue with the complex as a destination, anchoring a productivity space that will redefine how visitors and residents alike engage with the Old City as a center of activity. The postcards are a literal dialogue between visitors and the city, channeling the unspoken and imaginary into the real.

The Dar al-Consul complex is currently undergoing renovation by the Custodia Terræ Sanctæ, under a grant from the European Union and implementation support from UN-Habitat. In their capacity as advisors, OHK developed a strategy for the rehabilitation of the complex as a vibrant and financially sustainable destination within the Old City and a template for urban rehabilitation in the Old City. The installation has been designed by OHK’s Ahmed Hassan.

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