Sigalit Landau

In Hebrew, the process of harvesting olives is called “Masik.” A ripe olive tree is shaken at the beginning of winter so that the olives fall from it and can be collected. In this video work, a machine is seen shaking the tree as the olives fall into a net. The net is then picked up and used as a sack to carry the olives with.

The men in the video are Palestinian workers employed in the orchards of Kibbutz Revivim in the weeks of harvest. The young laborers wield their sticks, their nimbly in the air, bringing a fiercely ritualistic dance into mind. The filming of a real olive harvest takes a turn that which is not a mere documentary, but rather becoming a wild agrarian hunt.