‘ To Heal a Wound’: Superstudio and the Western Wall Plaza at the Israel Museum, 1982

The exhibition Metaphors and Allegories: Superstudio, Firenze opened at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 1982. Initially conceived by curator Izzika Gaon as an opportunity to communicate the Florentine group’s ‘special method of working and thinking’ through existing work, Metaphors and Allegories ultimately initiated a much more direct conversation with the Israeli public through the display of a design for the Western Wall Plaza undertaken by Adolfo Natalini and David Palterer. Drawing on archival material and interviews, this paper positions this scheme as a provocation that sought to use its position within the museum to reflect on and respond to a series of ongoing political and social tensions within Israeli society. A temporary display intended to be seen within the walls of the Israel Museum, Natalini and Palterer’s project for the Western Wall Plaza intertwines various views of the past that inform the differing conceptions of the wall’s purpose, challenging a singular, statist vision for the site.