Island of Shoes

Sigalit Landau collected a 100 pairs of women’s, men’s and children’s shoes and sank them for a few weeks in the Dead Sea; the objects acquired a thick layer of salt. The artist alludes to the acclaimed medicinal properties of the salt from the Dead Sea. Metaphorically, the salt provides protection from global catastrophe. The shoes, arranged in the shape of an island, are reminiscent of the permanent exhibition at the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. They are a modern-day reflection on collective memory in the context of the Holocaust, a metaphor for coming to terms with the past.