A living orange tree hangs slightly above the ground in an egg-shaped vessel in Old Jaffa. The sculpture is the work of artist Ran Morin, who described his "living statues" as a meditation on the tension between being rooted and being uprooted.
In Jaffa, the idea carries particular weight. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jaffa Oranges were among the most recognised brands in the world, a source of pride for Arab and Jewish residents alike. Urban development gradually replaced the groves, and the Israeli economy pivoted from agriculture to high-tech: literally, as the tour notes, from rooted to uprooted. The trademark itself was eventually sold to orange growers abroad, severed from the place that created it.
VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours place the sculpture in this history, using it to connect Old Jaffa's Ottoman and British Mandate-era past to the city that Tel Aviv-Yafo has become.