CHEN COHEN

The work "Mother Spirit" centers around a lament inspired by a television interview with a grieving mother, whose daughter was killed at the Nova music festival. Chen Cohen reinterprets the mother's words through various layers of translation and defamiliarization: the interview was transcribed, translated into English, and formed into a ballad where the devout mother conveys gratitude that her daughter's body was not desecrated, remaining intact and covered, as if its sanctity was preserved. She describes her wounds as being "sealed," evoking imagery similar to the story of Jesus.

Cohen portrays the mother's role with her body, possibly aiming to serve as a vessel for the message, as she lip-synchs the song. Sitting still in a dark dress, her lip movements align with a voice that isn’t hers. This detachment of the text from its origin shifts it from a specific instance to a broader depiction of grieving, attempting to reshape hurt and loss into beauty and acceptance, turning pain into sanctity.

The backdrop—a large photograph of a mural featuring two peacocks in Art Nouveau style—establishes a balanced, ceremonial, and possibly transcendent atmosphere. The peacock, representing eternity and ascension to paradise in various cultures, enhances the work’s religious essence, leaning more toward a Christian than Jewish sentiment: portraying a monastic figure, sacred music, and a narrative about a body whose "wounds were closed."
The work was filmed with a 16mm camera—a vanishing medium—and the grainy aesthetics create a sense of fading memory. Despite the beauty, harmony, and symmetry, deliberate deviations also appear in the work: Cohen's hands stand out in their distorted form, her body appears large in relation to the door depicted in the set, and a foreign voice is attached to her silently moving lips.

Cohen operates from an existential emotional-physical complexity and challenges the boundaries of the body and the photographed image in her work. Her work is characterized by profound physical exploration. She imposes private rituals on herself—almost religious gestures—and frameworks of self-discipline. Through her body, she navigates the axis between beauty and physical distortion, creating a personal language to address pain and questions about identity and faith.

Song and composition: Keren Ofer 
Cinematographer: Ziv Berkovich 
Assistant Cinematographer: Naama Bernstein 
Editing: Uri Noam 
Makeup: Arava Asaf
Special Thanks 
Daniel Oksenberg, Yasmin Davis, Koren Dan, Tal Yahas
The work was supported by Artport