If You Fall, Will I Catch You?
Sound installation, 2023 (18 minutes)

Concept, text, voiceover | Joy Bernard
Music and composition | Lir Sharon
Installation photographs | Efrat Mazor

A site-specific version of the work was presented in the exhibition “Between Night and Day” at Alfred Gallery
(curator: Dr. Revital Michali) in September-October 2023.

Hello. I’m falling forward, downward. Can you catch me?
I know you can’t see me so maybe you don’t believe me
But I would like to ask you to suspend your disbelief
I want you to believe me
It’s sort of an emergency
Don’t panic, but I want you to trust me
Can you catch me please?
Do you remember that game we used to play when we were children? You used to stand and spread your arms to the sides, and then slowly, ever so slowly, you would tilt your back and allow yourself to drop your weight backwards. Did you play this game as a child? What role did you love best, being the faller or the catcher?
Do you think we’re born with a role? That some people are born falling and others are born catching? Is it a predestination?
I was always the catcher, you know? But now I’m falling, I have no choice but to fall.

A physical research, a study on falling that began in the dance studio, found its way into a sonar experiment, a choreography for the voice. Co-created with musician and composer Lir Sharon, this work invites listeners to scan a QR code at the entrance to a gallery and embark on a journey. Visitors are asked to follow a set of physical instructions in order to remember, relive and release personal, historical, moral and collective moments of falling down. Falling stars, the falling Twin Towers, falling in love – why are we so afraid of falling?