
Land, 2024
Color photograph, archival pigment print
72 x 52 cm
The work Land is a scan and print of a fragment from the War Scroll (The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness), after erasing the original text, except for a single word: Land.
The War Scroll, discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, is an apocalyptic-militant text from the first century BCE. It presents a vision of a cosmic struggle between the Sons of Light -“the righteous” - and the Sons of Darkness - “the wicked.” The scroll reflects a dichotomous, harsh, and uncompromising worldview.
In the context of human rights and the shifting meanings of charged concepts such as sovereignty, belonging, borders, and territory, the erasure is not merely a formal gesture-it is an intervention into an ideological text and a symbolic negation of war.
What remains is the lone word Land-abstract and burdened all at once-a word that continues to resonate with the unresolved questions: To whom does it belong? Who is excluded from it? Who fights over it? And who has the right to call it home?
David Adika
Photo: HLP gallery/ Adriaan Hauwaert

Photo: Haifa Museum of Art/ Hadar Saifan