Ori Gersht, First to Laugh, 2013

Ori Gersht (B. 1967)

First to Laugh, 2013

14-channel video

Ori Gersht’s First to Laugh is a 14-channel video installation featuring pairs of children engaged in a laughing contest, in which the first to laugh loses the game. This sensitive, heart-warming installation captures the children’s non-verbal communication, their attempts to remain serious and overcome the “contagious” effect of laughter, and the sense of release experienced when laughing together. Filmed in 2013, this video work portrays pupils at the Jewish-Arab school in Neve Shalom during intuitive, playful moments, precluding identification of their social affiliation. Through the prism of Gersht’s simple, non-judgmental humanity, we witness a process of growing closer thanks to the healing and unifying power of laughter. First to Laugh invites us to suspend our social biases, providing us – in the difficult Israeli reality post-October 7 – with an opportunity for rethinking the unifying power of shared experience.

Gersht’s recently published debut novel, Ham in the Sky, depicts a close and loving relationship between a chimpanzee, the first ape trained to travel into space, and between Bradley, the man who trains him. The novel captures conventions and prejudices concerning the relationships between humans and animals, as well as the concept of love, and explores the cruelty and human blindness involved in the race towards “progress.” This moving novel is concerned with helplessness, pain vis-à-vis the suffering of another, loneliness, the limits of humanity and the ability to identify and experience closeness. Like his video work, Gersht’s recently published book provokes a heartfelt reaction, bringing us face-to-face with the challenges of human empathy in 2024.