Les Inséparables

Esther Shalev-Gerz (Vilnius, Lithuania, 1948)
Collection : Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC)

Les Inséparables (the inseparables) consists of twin clocks whose duplicated faces overlap one another. Esther Shalev-Gerz’s work sits atop two recently renovated buildings on rue Lissignol in the Saint-Gervais district, the historical cradle of Genevan watch-making. As a nod to this industrial past, the sculpture inspires us to reflect on time. The four hands on the two faces simultaneously turn in opposite directions. Thus they present a joint, simultaneous progression of time that is directed toward both the past and future, uniting in the present. The work becomes a meeting place for that inseparable duo: the past and the future, which can only coexist in this moment in the present time. Born in Lithuania, raised in Israel and now living in Paris, Esther Shalev-Gerz creates work that raises questions about the construction of memory in its interactions between personal recollection and collective history. Her installations, videos and photographic works explore and present sites and landscapes, stories and objects marked by the question of traces of memory.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham