Michal Rovner: Echoes

Michal Rovner’s works are concerned with the human state of permanent wandering, of endlessly seeking a home. Her intricate, multilayered video art takes footage of people she documented in different parts of the world and incorporates it into landscapes and environments that are both specific and universal, local and timeless. People can be seen walking alone or in groups, fading and surfacing.

Echoes seems more like a delicate monochromatic drawing than a video, and could well be called a “moving picture.” It brings to life images of wandering that have been etched into collective memory, from the movement of the first humans out of Africa, through historic migrations and foundational stories like the exodus from Egypt, to the relocation of refugees, asylum-seekers, and displaced people in our own day.

The work was initially created for a special Israel Philharmonic concert in memory of those who were killed on October 7. Emerging against the background of wanderers searching for their home are images of growing flowers, which represent continuity, determination, and the hope for a better future.

Michal Rovner, Israeli, born 1957

Echoes, 2024

Video projection

Collection of the artist