Rachel Monosov questions power structures, the meaning of freedom, and space in relation to movement in her multidisciplinary practice with a focus on the relationship between body action and stillness. Her background as a Soviet-era child, her family’s immigration to Israel in 1991, and her move to Europe upon reaching adulthood fuels her focus on the relationship between the Body and the Nation-state.
In Dead Earth, A Place of No Escape Monosov threads together how geopolitical power struggles take shape by control of land and resources, implementing nationally or racially segregated labor, manipulating locations of ruins, transforming them into forests, and denying recognition of native land rights through legal means. The work comments on the broader notion that certain actions require a period of stillness and contemplation, even if it means letting go of existing crops and methods to pave the way for new growth of alternatives. As Mahmood Mamdani wrote, “One can be only the oppressor or the oppressed, the majority or the minority, the nation or the other’’. This new performative work by Rachel Monosov brings to the forefront the lasting impact blind beliefs have on our personal and natural environment.