Beelzebularin is a photographical portrait of Tanya Ury dressed as the biblical Bezalel ben Uri (Bezalel son of Uri), the artist who constructed the holy objects for Moses' new monotheist God. In a digitally reworked photograph, Bezalel stands in front of a beach and sea view with 2 swans, not of the Red Sea, nor of the Nile, but of Binz, a tourist resort on the Baltic Sea, Germany; in his right hand he holds a golden calf (original: standing bull with head at an angle. Middle East (Syria?) 1000 BC. 2,7cm, 8,91g.), in the other a Swan Vestas English matchbox, representing the Ark of the Covenant, a Pandora's tinderbox; the matchbox has been altered so that the logo shows not one swan but two that represent the two winged Cherubim facing each other on the Ark of the Covenant.

Although the taboo of the graven image had just been initiated, in the 2 digitally handwritten texts of Bezalel's story in English and German, Bezalel carves winged angels on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.

Bezalel means: in the shadow of God (Vayaqhel 214a). The title Beelzebularin, an anagram of the words "Bezalel ben Uri" suggests the word "Beelzebub", a god of the Philistines (2 Kings 1:2), literally: "lord of flies", from the Hebrew "ba'al zebub".

Tanya Ury

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