Koral Marcovich

Emigration

In a two-channel video work I embark on a double journey – into the photo archive of my grandfather who emigrated to Romania from Israel in 2004; and through photographs I took last summer, when I visited him for the first time.
Through a new reading of reality, I address the time gaps between the two situations: the right screen portrays my grandfather’s journey in 2003 to collect documents in order to renew the Romanian citizenship, taken from him when he emigrated to Israel after World War II. The left screen follows my journey as a granddaughter, photographed without knowing the materials in the family archives. Only after the fact did the resemblance between the two documents emerged.
My work reflects on the concept of time through the practice of photography. Two video shooting techniques from different technological eras )VHS, SLR( follow one another. Through them I explore different perceptions of emigration. My grandfather documented his journey as a tourist in a foreign country. He captured the moments that he deemed important to preserve. Not long after, he emigrated to the space of the images that he captured with his camera and they became a part of his world. I use his photographs and assimilate them in my world.