Modelscapes of Nationalism: Collective Memories and Future Visions

235 Pages·2017·2.014 MB·English

by  Yael Padan

3 HERITAGE AND MEMORY STUDIES
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of Nationalism
Collective Memories
and Future Visions
Modelscapes of Nationalism
Heritage and Memory Studies
This ground-breaking series examines the dynamics of heritage and memory
from a transnational, interdisciplinary and integrated approach. Monographs
or edited volumes critically interrogate the politics of heritage and dynamics of
memory, as well as the theoretical implications of landscapes and mass violence,
nationalism and ethnicity, heritage preservation and conservation, archaeology
and (dark) tourism, diaspora and postcolonial memory, the power of aesthetics
and the art of absence and forgetting, mourning and performative re-enactments
in the present.
Series Editors
Rob van der Laarse and Ihab Saloul, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Editorial Board
Patrizia Violi, University of Bologna, Italy
Britt Baillie, Cambridge University, United Kingdom
Michael Rothberg, University of Illinois, USA
Marianne Hirsch, Columbia University, USA
Frank van Vree, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Modelscapes of Nationalism
Collective Memories and Future Visions
Yael Padan
Amsterdam University Press
Cover illustration: Central Zionist Archives. ‘The Old City in Miniature at the Holyland
Hotel’, file no. NKH\428705, original no. 2198/39
Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout
Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by
the University of Chicago Press.
isbn 978 90 8964 985 0
e-isbn 978 90 4852 901 8 (pdf)
doi 10.5117/9789089649850
nur 680
© Yael Padan / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2017
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
To Haim, Avigayil, Itamar and Adam

Table of Contents
Preface 11
Introduction: Narratives into Objects, Objects into Narratives 13
What are Models? 15
Modelscapes 17
Case Studies 19
1 The Qualities of Modelscapes 27
Models and Modern Modes of Perception 28
Visual Perception as a Product of Social Relations 29
Visual Objects as Makers of Culture 30
Historicizing Visual Culture 31
Contemporary Modes of Vision 32
Collection and Classification 34
The Model as Representation 37
The Copy 38
Model, Image and Text 41
Experience, Performance and Play 43
Models and Architecture 48
The Perception of Architecture 49
On Scale and the Body 50
Interior and Exterior Modelscapes 54
2 Models and Modern Perceptions of Nationalism 57
The Perception of Time and Modern Nationalism 58
A Verbal Model: Utopia 60
Models and the Construction of Collective Identity in Modernity 61
Theories of the Emergence of Modern National Identity 62
Modelscapes as Representations of National Space 65
Modelscapes as Signifiers of National Identity 67
Time and Enclosure 72
3 The Second Temple Model 75
Designing the Second Temple Model 77
The Model of Imperial Rome 81
A Serious Plaything 84
Authenticity 88
The Second Temple Model as a Representation of Archaeology 98
The Second Temple Model and the Protestant Perspective 101
Representing the Past 103
A Vision of the Future 106
Relocating the Model 108
Who Visits the Second Temple Model? 111
Updating the Model 114
4 Mini Israel 121
Mini Israel as a Theme Park 123
The Politics of the Miniature 125
The Politics of the Site 128
The Politics of Utopia: Planning the Site 130
The Politics of the Sign: Choosing the Models 134
The Political Economy of Mini Israel 145
The Politics of the Exhibition: Mini Israel at the Israel Museum 148
The Politics of the Model: A Partial Inventory 154
5 The Valley of the Communities 161
Collective Memory and its Sites 163
Official Holocaust Memory in Israel 167
The Valley of the Communities in the Context of Minimalist
Memorials 170
Yad Vashem and the Mount of Remembrance 175
The Valley of the Communities 179
Designing and Building the Site 185
Remembering and Forgetting 189
The Memorial Ritual at the Valley of the Communities 191
Performance and Ritual within Memorial Monuments 193
Pilgrimages to Holocaust Memorials 195
The Linking Path March 196
Conclusions 207
Representational Modes 208
Bibliography 219
Index 231
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 The Second Temple Model, general view 20
Figure 2 Mini Israel theme park, general view 21
Figure 3 “Mini Israel”: 70 Models, 45 artists, One Space (exhibi-
tion by Larry Abramson), 2006, installation view, Israel
Museum, Jerusalem 22
Figure 4 The Valley of the Communities, by Lipa Yahalom – Dan
Zur, Landscape Architects 23
Figure 5 Bekonscot Model Village, general view 36
Figure 6 New York Panorama, general view 45
Figure 7 Model of Mont Saint Michel, at the Musée des Plans-
Reliefs, Paris 66
Figure 8 The Second Temple Model, general view 76
Figure 9 Detail from the Model of Imperial Rome 81
Figure 10 The Hasmonean Palace, Second Temple Model 86
Figure 11 Second Temple Model at the Israel Museum, Aerial view 110
Figure 12 Moving of the Second Temple Model 111
Figure 13 The Second Temple Model with the Parliament at the
background 113
Figure 14 Site plan of the My Land Holyland exhibition 125
Figure 15 Plan of Mini Israel (official map which visitors receive at
the site), 2010 131
Figure 16 The Latrun Monastery (at the far background) seen with
its model 137
Figure 17 Typical figures at Mini Israel 139
Figure 18 A Bedouin tent at Mini Israel 141
Figure 19 Figures of worshipers covered with protective box 144
Figure 20 “Mini Israel”: 70 Models, 45 artists, One Space (exhibition
by Larry Abramson) 2006, installation view 152
Figure 21 “Mini Israel”: 70 Models, 45 artists, One Space (exhibition
by Larry Abramson) 2006, installation view 154
Figure 22 “Mini Israel”: 70 Models, 45 artists, One Space (exhibition
by Larry Abramson), 2006, installation view 155
Figure 23 “Mini Israel”: 70 Models, 45 artists, One Space (exhibition
by Larry Abramson), 2006, installation view 157
Figure 24 Plan of the Valley of the Communities 162
Figure 25 Site plan of Yad Vashem. The Valley of the Communities
is no. 14 in the upper left corner 177