In To Leave and to Take, Irit Batsry uses a simple basic unit: a “hand” made of rice. The rice hands (about 2000 of them, adding up to one ton of rice) are dispersed in the space as traces of an itinerary and as “building blocks” for shelter units. The shelter units, reminiscent of sand bag barricades, can be perceived as half built or half destroyed. Video tapes, evoking a Sisyphean endeavor, are projected in this darkened, transformed space.

To Leave and to Take thus evokes notions of food and shelter through the use of poetic objects and video projections. The installation is part of a thematic project in progress entitled, Neither There Nor Here. The project, initiated in 1995 after a short stay in the South of India, is being produced during an artist's residency at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne.