Ha Aretz

Named after the Hebrew term referring to the Holy Land, Ha Aretz is a reinterpretation of the biblical stories amidst a globalized world of alien­ation and conflict.Based on a deep historiographic research and compiled with photos taken throughout all the countries that make up the Holy Land, the work documents the precise locations where the most celebrated events of the Holy Scriptures supposedly took place, beginning with Gene­sis and Exodus and passing through the life of Jesus up to the Revelation. From the river Nile to the Sea of Galilee, Damascus to Bethlehem or Mount Sinai to Babylon, Ha Aretz reflects on the evolution of the ancestral regions that represent the epicenter of Jewish, Christian, and Arab cultures, while attesting to the power that geopolitics, capitalism, and technology exert in our times. The booklet describes the relevance of the place then and now.

The photographer Roger Grasas (b. 1970 in Barcelona) has had several international solo and group exhibitions – his work was, for instance, shown in Madrid, Paris, Jakarta, and Sydney. Grasas addresses the role that technology and post-capitalism play within a globalized world, as well as the state of alienation propelled within an increasingly sophisticated and indecipherable contemporary landscape, replete of paradoxes. The connections between history and territory as well as the dichotomy of nature and culture provide a common ground for his projects. Here, his academic background in photography and philosophy brings a fascinating perspective. For his long-term landscape documentation project Ha Aretz, Grasas has received several awards, including Descubri-mientos PhotoEspaña in 2018 and the Silver award at Verzasca Fo-to Festival in 2021.

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