1) The name of the exhibition is "Passages Crossed - "between space and time"
2) The exhibition approach
The proposed sound intervention is part of a series of tributes that have been developed since 1996. Among
those honoured by the artist are Paul Celan, Clarice Lispector and Hannah Arendt. In 1999, at SESC
rompeia, São Paulo, Nair Kremer honored Walter Benjamin in an interactive exhibition called History and
drawn by the artist in Port Bou, Spain - where the philosopher commnitted sue suicide as resistance to the Nazi
is om the past that blows the refreshing boost. giving rise to a symbolic time, from the episode of water
chance, on the bcach - the geographical boundary between countries, and the limit between the ocean and
ibute to Dani Karavan revisits the theme, dialoguing with "Passages- a monument
concentration camp.
The presented work is located in a place of passage, in the boundary between two countries and two times. It
s death, In his desire to be saved from the Nazi extermination. Frustrated in his purpose, Walter
Benjamin committed suicide.
6S to Cmphasize an absurd death and evervthing it stands for that the Israeli artist Dani Karavan erects his
monument in 1994, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Walter Benjamin's death, not by
ue continent: Portbou. The high expression of the monument, sculptural installation integrated to the
lanascapPe, emphasizes shapes, materials, and sounds, evoking the event that the artist intended to highlight,
that is, the Europe situation during World War II and his tribute to Walter Benjamin, in the 50th year of his
death.
More than an artwork that activates the landscape, it is the landscape that activates the work. It is to this
event that the visual and performance artist Nair Kremer joins, adding her own psychic and aesthetic
anxieties to the homage. As an artist made in Israel and for years in Brazil, her native country, she travels to
Spain, visits Portbou, and feels the call to add to Dani Karavan's honour, her own honouring.
No moral or message, the flight of stairs, the tunnel, an ocean cropping, the image of an olive tree, the exile
and loneliness are reflected in the performance of Nair Kremer, which adds her own concerns to the
installation.
The artist makes a solid and symbolic crossing of the monument, calling neighbouring supporting elements
for her homage: with her hands together in the shape of wings, she accompanies the walls of the monument,
creating lightness and making the sound "to fly over".
The hands and the sounds they generate update the chain of feelings and emotions embedded
in artist homage, as recorded in her video Passage 1. This video documents the journey made
by her and brings the memory of other already done crossings.
To add to the exhibition there are photos, photomontages, prints, drawings and a sound installation, all of
them composed from the experience lived in her visit to Portbou.
3) What is behind?
The tribute made by the artist reflects and represents personal and collective tensions regarding the concepts
of existence, impermanence and identity. The decision of going to Portbou and be present at Dani Karavan's
installation reveals a position on the many conflicts, including the genocidal atrocities throughout history.
The aesthetic and discursive elements that ritualize the work (hands, Karavan's installation, rings and
sounds) are enhanced in hyper-enlarged new composition photographs. There, the skin and the artist veins re
mean as space for solid and symbolic passage. The figures created refer to incisions, wounds, living matter -

which is also a condition of passage. The passage of blood in the veins has to do with the monument in
donour of Walter Benjamin, as other passages also.
If rings paced the installation crossing in a single, ephemeral and ritualized instant, at the same time they are
sacred symbols of permanent and indissoluble links, and have all set relevance to an owner, loaded with
subjectivity.
Finally, behind the tribute, there is a symbolic decision to accept being in someone's shoes, scheduling
presence in absence.