Carl Johan Erikson

The Jerusalem model, scale 1: 800, 2017

The book and exhibition the Jerusalem model, scale 1: 800 portrays a model depicting Jerusalem AD 33. The model was built by Ingmar Eklöv, 75, in Hålland, Jämtland, 1989. 

Ingmar describes how to build the foundation of the model:

” It’s of fiberglass-reinforced plastic made in two sections, which we then put together. We started with relief maps of Jerusalem today, adapted to the landscape of the day – meaning AD 33. Among other things, the Kidron Valley was 30 meters deeper than it is today and where Via Dolorosa passes the Valley of the Cheesemakers we had to make an adjustment of 20 meters based on the scale we were working with.”

The photographs creates displacements between different scales and perspectives – from snapshots to macro images – which create the conditions for different readings of the city as construction and conception. The images of the Jerusalem model – and the model in itself – give a sense of control and overview. A fiction in a complex unmanageable reality.

The Jerusalem model, scale 1: 800 is Erikson's fifth book and the first of the resurrected publishing house FAS Publishing SE. Erikson is an artist and has a long-term ongoing artistic project based on the conceptual documentation of practices and artefacts in the environments and contexts of the Swedish Christian revival movements (Pentecostals, Baptists, etc).

The book Jerusalemmodellen, skala 1:800 is published by FAS Publishing, 2017

Link to Magnus Bon's text about the exhibition at Tegen - Konsten.net