""There are people who do not know how to destroy fragments of their lives, even though they hinder their development," the Israeli artist Dov Or-Ner wrote in typewritten instructions for a conceptual art experiment in 1972, referencing a general desire to release things from the past that no longer serve us. "What is suggested here is to become free of whatever one chooses." As part of a landmark Israeli conceptual art project called Metzer-Meiser situated along the seamline of Kibbutz Metzer and the Arab village Meiser between June and October 1972, Or-Ner asked residents of both communities for personal items they were ready to shed, and buried them together as specimens to be unearthed at some future point."
"Meanwhile, three other artists carried out other actions linked to these neighbouring towns. The painter and sculptor Moshe Gershuni photographed Kibbutz Metzer and then hypothetically parcelled plots of land among kibbutz members-foreshadowing the privatisation of the socialist kibbutzim decades later. Avital Geva, a sculptor interested in art and the kibbutz (and whose father was the architect of Meiser's mosque), scattered thousands of scrapped books along the path between the two communities, inviting people to collect books they wanted. The most widely covered project was Exchange of Earth, Metzer-Messer by the sculptor Micha Ullman, who dug two identical pits at the centre of each community with the help of local youngsters, transferring soil from one to the other."
In 1972 artists enacted Metzer-Meiser along the seam between Kibbutz Metzer and the Arab village Meiser. Dov Or-Ner collected personal items residents wished to shed and buried them as specimens to be unearthed later. Moshe Gershuni photographed the kibbutz and hypothetically parceled plots of land among members. Avital Geva scattered scrapped books along the path between the two communities for people to collect. Micha Ullman dug matching pits in each community and exchanged soil between them. The project directly addressed the Jewish-Arab space and later inspired a contemporary exhibition, Metzer-Meiser: Take 2, at Givat Haviva Art Gallery curated by Anat Lidror and Tali Tamir.
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