The wall
www.wailingwall.no - release of a new webart project
A new webart project www.wailingwall.no has been released on internet in august 2006. Russian born artist Galina Manikova, who has lived in Norway since 1986, is responsible for the idea and took the initiative for this project, which is supported by Norwegian Cultural Fond.
www.wailingwall.no is a place, where the visitors can put their own notes in the Wailing Wall or find, open, read and comment on the notes, left by other visitors. These notes do not have to be complains, they may show pictures, provoke discussions or express hopes and wishes. Aside from that public related part, the website hides a lot of small visual or musical elements and experiences that the visitors to this site can trace and play with. This project offers also a lot of links to other relevant and entertaining websites. One can get to some deeper layers and hidden sides only by participating actively. When one puts own new notes into the wall, one gets further to some new layers and discovers some new sides within this project, which continuously gets changed and updated.
The main subject of www.wailingwall.no is walls, why they are build and how they influence the mankind. This site allows ordinary people to express their opinions on the subject uncensored. Right now have many people already sent a lot of notes containing different views on the Lebanese war, the conflict in the Middle East and the subject of terrorism, which shows how relevant and up to date this project can become.
Webart duo Hege Vadstein and Paul Brady have made programming and visual design of the site in collaboration with Galina Manikova, while the British composer Kyan Laslett O`Brian created the music. Photograph of the wall is by David Dector, who lives in Jerusalem.
This project is a result of a long-term work on the subject of walls, why they get built and how they influence humanity. Walls could be a good thing that symbolizes protection, security, safety and privacy. Walls could also be a bad thing that stands for segregation, isolation, imprisonment or persecution.
This esoteric wailing wall in cyber space has a reference to different cultural and religious practices like a Buddhist tree of wishes or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where the visitors can place their complains, wishes, pictures and regrets. Other people can see and read them and make comments.
Aside from this interactive part this virtual wall hides a lot of links to different other relevant sites that can be informative or entertaining. I also use this wall to publish documentation in form of photographs and notes that I am collecting from series of installations that started in Turkey and China in 2006. I am continuously scanning and putting out the notes in different languages that have been placed physically in the ”walls of wishes” at different locations around the world.
My wailing wall is hiding several deeper layers that can be accessed only by making a direct contribution to the project, which is leading one to the destiny wheel. Each time one makes a new contribution one gets a new chance to read about own destiny for that moment in form of a short story visualizing an event that can be interpreted in many different ways.
This project is allowing everyone to express a meaning or publish a picture. The longer one stays there, the more new features one discovers. This project is changing continuously and is often reflecting on different events in different countries and politics. Conflict in the Middle East, Iraq war and acts of terror were commented from different points of view.
Hege Vadstein and Paul Brady stand for programming and visual forming of this site in cooperation with Galina Manikova, while British composer Kyan Laslett O`Brian has created the music. Photograph of the wall is taken by David Dector, who lives in Jerusalem.