"The Architecture of Erasure"-Fantasy or Reality?

• Published in: Critical inquiry Vol. 36; no. 3; p. 563
• Main Authors: Israeli, Raphael, Berkovits, Shmuel, Neriah, Jacques, Hier, Marvin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago University of Chicago, acting through its Press 01.04.2010
• Subjects: Arab Israeli relations; Architecture; Gehry, Frank O (1929- ); Makdisi, Saree; Museums; Palestinian people; Israel
• ISSN: 0093-1896; 1539-7858
• DOI: 10.1086/653413

Iraeli et al stresses it is Saree Makdisi's thesis that the museum reflects Israel's "uneasy" relationship with the Palestinian community and a desire to keep the Palestinians in its midst out of sight and out of mind, in effect to "erase" their presence and to disregard their history. They note that Makdisi's suggestion that Frank Gehry "consciously" sought to evoke the separation barrier in his design of the museum, is chronologically impossible. Gehry was chosen to design the museum in 1999, long before the barrier was conceived or implemented in 2003. Nor did he design the museum knowing that ancient graves were located beneath the site. These graves were not discovered until after construction began in 2005. All that Gehry knew at the time was that he was designing a building on a site that had served as the city's municipal car park for several decades.