Sigalit Landau’s “The Burning Sea” at the Israel Museum

Image:  Sigalit Landau, Island in the Sun (Bridge II), 2022, video installation, 7:11 mins.


For twenty years, Sigalit Landau has made art – both monumental and profoundly intimate – at the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth.

Inspired by this primal place, Landau creates works of great beauty that address fragile dualities: life and death, injury and healing, destruction and hope.


"The Burning Sea" at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem presents a selection of Landau’s Dead Sea artworks of the last two decades, from glittering salt-encrusted sculptures through video works and photographs. The exhibition also premieres a new video trilogy that relates to her idea of building a bridge over the lake, a project that has engaged Landau for many years, first emerging in her memorable installation at the 2011 Venice Biennale, which is represented for the first time in Israel.


Following Landau into the salt-saturated water and experiencing both the magnificence and the devastation of this endangered site, the exhibition closes on an optimistic note, with the hope that we can build a bridge over burning water.

Curated by Amitai Mendelsohn