The Cave

In the Bible, Abraham buys a cave from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place for his wife Sarah. The Cave of the Patriarchs, as it has come to be known, became the final resting place not only for Sarah, but for Abraham and their descendants as well. In Jewish mystical sources the cave is also a passageway back to the Garden of Eden. It is said that Adam and Eve are also buried there. 

The cave is of great religious significance for Muslims as well. While the Jews are descendants of Abraham and Sarah through their son Isaac, the Muslims trace their lineage to Abraham through his son Ishmael born to Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid. 

Today the cave, located in the largely Arab town of Hebron, in the West Bank, is completely built over and inaccessible. The ancient structures built above it reveal a long history of conflicting claims. One discovers not only the wall Herod erected around the cave, but also the remains of a Byzantine church, and finally the mosque built in the 12th century which has dominated the site ever since. Since 1967 the mosque built above the cave remains under Muslim jurisdiction, while the Israeli army maintains a presence at the site. Though tensions can run high, the site remains unique as the only place on earth where Jews and Muslims both worship. 

The Cave is in three acts. In each act we asked the same basic questions to a different group of people. The basic five questions were: Who for you is Abraham? Who for you is Sarah? Who for you is Hagar? Who for you is Ishmael? Who for you is Isaac? In the first act we asked Israelis, in the second we asked Palestinians and in the third we asked Americans. 

The video and music were created by the artists in their home studios. It used the technology available at that time for home use and was created as Photoshop was developing between 1989 and 1993.

The Cave is a five-channel performance installation. VDB is pleased to offer a single-channel composite of The Cave for educational purposes. The soundtrack by Steve Reich is an electronic mockup the artists used when creating the work, and not the instrumental version used in Nonesuch recording or in performance.