As the current Middle East situation escalates, the international media tends to focus on the political aspects of Israel, rarely covering its culture. Tonight's Israeli Experimental Film and Video program is a rare opportunity for Boston audiences to get a glimpse of Israel and Israeli culture from the perspective of several of Israel’s emerging artists. We hope this program will acquaint you with a fresh perspective on Israeli art and culture amidst the challenges that surround the region. Among the award wining artist included in the program are: Avi Setton, Zoya Cherkassky, Ruti Nemet, Tami Marks, Sharon Balaban, Avner Ben-Gal, Lior Shvil, Boaz Arad, Nurit Bar-Shai, Elyasaf Kowner, Ayelet Ben-Porat, Eli Petel, and Adam Rabinowitz.

Several artists will be in attendance at the show including Adam Rabinowitz, Ruti Nemet, Tami Marks, Nurit Bar-Shai and guest curator Karin Segal.

Our Balagan special guest curator for this show, Karin Segal, is an Israeli artist living in Tel-Aviv and Boston. For the past three years Karin has worked as a Programming Assistant for the Boston Jewish Film Festival and as a Publicist at the Harvard Film Archive. We are honored to have Karin bring us this special Israeli program.

TOY-TECH MULTIMEDIA GROUP PROJECT 4min, video, 2000
Sculptor and Initiator: Avi Setton (b. 1955, Jerusalem, Israel)
(Video Art: ShortCut, Multimedia: Sub-Res, Shortcut, GroovAbility; Art Director & Designer: Yaron Shitrit; Original Sound Track: Grundik + Slava (Earsay))

Avi Setton’s tiny metal sculptures in the TOY-TECH series are aerodynamically shaped with well-defined direction and movement. The first impression one receives is of images borrowed from an advanced technological world. This impression is both enticing and deceptive, as Setton has gone back in time, transplanting a spring in the bowels of his creations - the type of spring that is found in tin toys, using technology that has been around for hundreds of years. In the heart of the creations beat engines that are clearly low-tech.

After winding their internal spring, the sculptures try to take off in an attempt to realize the movement that is inherent in their shape, but all their attempts are in vain. Transplanted in the center of the seemingly advanced machine is a mechanism that ultimately leads to spasms and death. The shape that simulates climbing actually involves crashing.

Do Setton’s sculptures deal in the wretchedness of advanced technology and its demise? Is this a romantic challenge (that is aware of its failure) of the mechanical, monotonous, hi-tech world? What would happen to the sculptures if they were run by hi-tech, nuclear, super-functional engines? What would happen if we removed the technological restraints? How would these sculptures behave?

This project has taken the high-tech / low-tech conflict in the sculptures and turned it into a multi-media presentation. With the aide of digital technology and computerized manipulations, they were given new, virtual lives.

In 1982, Avi Setton graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. His works have been exhibited in the major museums and galleries around Israel. Between 1985 and 2000, he has been a senior Lecturer, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel.

Statistim 3min, video,1999
Le Bel Indifferent 4min, animation, 2001
Director: Zoya Cherkassky (born in 1976, Kiev, Ukraine) and Ruti Nemet (born in 1977, Tel-Aviv, Israel)

Statistim, an animation film (stills animation), was originally projected on the display window on the second floor of the gallery located on one of the main streets. The audience was invited to watch the film from outside as if to pick through the window into a family's living room. To preserve the spectators' point of view the entire film is shot with a static camera and from the same position and angle. The sets are constructed as a 1:10 model of a home interior, while the characters (mother, father and son) are composed out of the photos of the real people and crafted figurines.

Similarly to Statistim, in Le Bel Indifferent (named after a play by Jean Cocteau) the sets are constructed as a 1:10 model. The characters were photographed separately. The film takes place in a cheap hotel room where the two characters - a singer and her lover, are having some kind of interaction. The theatrical gestures of the acting, the decor of the room, the look of the characters, and the soundtrack, refer to the silent films of the twenties.

Ruti Nemet & Zoya Cherkassky have been working together since 1996. In 1999 Ruti and Zoya graduated from Beit-Berl College, School of Art. Their works have been exhibited in the major museums and galleries around Israel. Unlike other artists partners such as Gilbert & George for instance, their artistic union is not a homogeneous entity but rather a collaboration of two opposite temperaments. For most of their works, Zoya creates figurines and sculptures, and Ruti does photography and paintings. Both of them work on the interior models. Through collaboration, they have received many awards and scholarships including prestigious Ingeborg Bachman Scholarship established by Anselm Kiefer, Wolf Foundation.

Miss Lucy 7min, video, 2001
Director: Tami Marks

The name, Miss Lucy, is derived from the sacred and the profane—being both the name of a Christian saint and of an Israeli hot dog company. Lucy is no bland woman of the fast food culture, neither is she a martyr willing to pluck out her eyes to preserve herself for Christ. She is a contemporary “Miss” looking at herself and at the world around her, dealing with issues of femininity, faith, ritual, art, sacrifice and madness. Lucy is simultaneously funny, pathetic, and painful, and therefore sometimes hard to digest.

Tami Marks is currently an MFA student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1998, she obtained her BFA degree at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. Her works have been screened both nationally and internationally including Video Space screenings at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, Harvard University, Guangiu Biennale (Korea), Tel-Aviv Cinematheque in Jerusalem (Israel), and others.

George 5.5min, video, 2000
The Iron 1min, video, 1997
Director: Sharon Balaban

“Seen from the rear, a naked male figure gyrates to the beat of George Michael’s FAST LOVE. This video image is a tightly shot form and wrist that mimic a human torso, engaged in sensuous dance moves. Impersonating body parts are a simple visual trick performed under effective lighting that produces alarmingly sexy and utterly hilarious effects. Balaban’s smart portrayal of the sensationalized body mocks society’s excessive preoccupation with sexuality and physical appearance.” - Hitomi Iwasaki, Associate Curator – Queens Museum of Art

Iron - encounters between body and object, modifying one another's function and significance.

“In my work I undertake a detailed examination of the body, as it communicates with and reflects the environment in which it moves. I examine its familiar and unfamiliar, organic and artificial facets, its motions, voluntary and involuntary, its endless possibilities. The video camera allows me to examine the results of focusing on a certain bodily movement when it is isolated from the body itself; self activated, or otherwise stimulated. There are some vulnerable spots in the body where I detect layers of civilized existence as compared to basic animal existence. Through sexuality, I examine how under the double constraint of biology and culture - erotica, power play, the grotesque and helplessness, interrelate. I test the sexual as the space where the animal and the base in human existence are most emphatically displayed, and where cultural structures are revealed at their most absurd.”- Sharon Balaban

In 1999, Sharon Balaban graduated from Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Jerusalem. She had both solo and group exhibitions in art galleries and museums in Israel and internationally including the Chicago Biennial, Artist Space NY and at the National Gallery of Budapest, Hungary.

RAMAYAMA-A THIEF MONKEY 1min, video, 1998
Director: Avner Ben-Gal (b. in 1966, Israel)

RAMAYAMA-A THIEF MONKEY, a short fast paced film, is a day from the life of Ramayama who was born and raised in India. Constructed as a classic exotic eastern tale, the film is full of appropriated images including footage of monkeys from different sources such as National Geographic documentaries and others. In 1993, Avner Ben-Gal graduated with Honors from the Fine Arts Department, Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Jerusalem. His work has been exhibited in major galleries and museums in Israel, the Exit Art Gallery (New York), the Jewish Museum (New York) and the Palazzo de Papesse (Seina, Italy). In 2002, Anver received a one-year scholarship award in a New
York studio from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Yosef 7.5 min, video
Director: Lior Shvil (born in 1971, Tel-Aviv, Israel), Music: Aharon Dezorayev

Yosef is based on an autobiographic story of the artist’s grandfather and on the legend of Yosef Troompeldor, soldier and early pioneer-settler in the land of Israel. Troompeldor was the commander of the artist's grandfather in the “Mule Brigade”. The floating image of the heroic stories used as an illustration, is a story of the passion of a child who identifies himself with the heroes, appropriates their image and tries to live this image through his actions. The film raises problematic issues of admiration, mistrust, passion and cynicism around the heroic stories that we grew up with.

After graduating from The Architecture Department at “Bezalel” Academy Of Art And Design, Jerusalem, Lior Shvil spent a post-graduate year at the Hamidrasha School Of Art, Bet Berl. He Exhibited at The Gallery Hamidrasha Of Art In Tel Aviv and at The Gallery Of The Post Graduate Studies Of Fine Art, Bezalel In Tel Aviv.

“I can’t say that I can distinguish a single path, a medium or a concept in my work. I see my work as a long search for an exact structure wherein this structure gets its shape in video, photography or other mediums. I can identify myself with a Jester - a confusing character of an Idiot, who transforms into something different every time. He provokes a subversive roll of fun and amusement, but his actions are much more fundamental. He builds another image of reality by combining mythological icons and simple life stories in the allegoric way. For me, Jester represents an artist who operates outside of the cultural structure but at the same time acts and lives inside of it. The artist is like an agent of low and high, vulgar and ideal....” - Lior Shvil

100 Beats 1min, video, 1999
Marcel, Marcel 1min, video, 2000
Director: Boaz Arad

100 Beats is an attempt to chaplinize Hitler, to make him human, to control him like a puppet.

Marcel Marcel is about the ways one creates an image. The artist modifies Hitler's portrait by changing the position of his moustache and as a result, constructs a different connotation every time.

Boaz Arad was born in Israel. He studied art at Avny Institute of Fine Arts (1978-82) and at the Camera Obscura - "The new seminar" (1995-96). He has been teaching art in "Telma Yelin", "Hamidrasha-Beit Berl"and "Camera Obscura".
His video piece "Hebrew Lesson" is currently on display as a part of the show "Mirroring Evil" at the Jewish Museum in New York.

 

T.M.B 4.5min, video, 2001
Director: Ayelet Ben-Porat (b. in 1976, Israel)

Creating recurrent rhythmic images is a popular method for deflating heavily-charged images. T.M.B is a techno piece consisting of images taken from early Israeli archival film footage.

Dad explains about weapons and numbers 4min, video, 2001
Director: Elyasaf Kowner (b. in 1970, Israel)

In Dad explains about weapons and numbers, Elyasaf Kowner’s ubiquitous camera enters his father’s unlimited boundaries in the kitchen arena. The father, Leon Kowner, displays a Polish magazine revealing top Secret information about Israel’s new weapons. It is that gaze at Poland as a home land that returns as a mix between nostalgia and the
hectic Israeli reality.

In 1999, Elyasaf Kowner graduated from Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Jerusalem. His work has been exhibited in the museums and galleries in Israel, the Royal Academy (the Hague, Holland), ‘Artist's space’ Gallery and ‘Christinrose’ Gallery (Soho, New York), ‘Centre d’Architecture Entrepôt’ (Bordeaux, France), Gwangju Biennale (Korea), and others. In 2001, he received an America-Israel cultural foundation award and in 2002 - a full year grant from the Israel National Lottery for his work ‘First Portrait’. He is currently teaching at the Shenkar Academy, Ramat Gan, Isarel.

Eli Eli 3min, video, 2000
Director: Eli Petel (b. in 1974, Jerusalem, Israel)

"The footage is taken from a TV series called ” Debby In The Hospital”, an English teaching series produced for the Israeli Educational Channel in the 1970's and broadcast during daytime in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I remember this specific episode form false and real sick days when I happily stayed at home. Except for the opening and closing scenes of the piece and my brief appearance in it, (shot in the “secher”- a sewage basin/ water reservoir in the outskirts of Jerusalem, my hometown) the film is constructed out of three scenes from the episode titled “Pollution” that deals with Environmental conservation issues.

The video deals with three subject matters:

1. The relation between art and the Academy (the piece was first exhibited at Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem): meeting, urging, persuasion, and jumping into the dip water of the exposure of the art product. In relation to the exposure, it is worthy of mentioning the effect that connects the physical disappearance of the drowning body in exchange to the exposure of the name. The name (my name – Eli) is being cried out and acts as kind of a commercial – repeating the brand name – Eli, Eli, Eli…
   
   
2. The social level: the relation between the blonde Uri - The zabar figure, the typycal Ashkenazi and Eli (the Sephardicloser) who is urged to get involved in the experience of the Zionist ethos: adventure, courage and physicality (sports) in supposedly enlightened context of the learning of a western language.



3. The biblical aspect: the name Eli in the Hebrew language is the popular shortness of the biblical name Elisha and it also means my G-D, and so My G-d, my G-d, why hast Thou forsaken me, and art far from my help at the words of my cry? ”( Book of Psalms (Chapter 22))
   The repetition of the name comes from the great excitement of despair. A pathos that emphasizes the complaint and gets stronger in the fact that the speaker feels abundant although he doesn’t give up or leaves. This brings together the rare moments of grace of art-making with the question of the authenticity of what was made. This biblical question opens the discussion about the connection between truth, muse and the social subject."-- Eli Petel

In 1999, Eli Petel graduated from Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Jerusalem. His works have been exhibited in the major museums and galleries around Israel. In 2000 he recieved a Keren Sharett Grant.

What Is Happy Baby 7min, video, 2002
Director: Nurit Bar-Shai (b. in 1974, Israel)

What Is Happy Baby is a video that observes laborious sequences of actions taken in an office-like environment. These actions describe similarly repetitive and meaningless activities that no longer relate to their origins. This video performance of obsessive repetitive and familiar actions, performed by a female, is exploring a freedom of action behavior and how it is given and dependent on the action itself. Nurit Bar-Shai lives and works in NY since August 2000. In 1999 she graduated with Honors from the Fine Arts Department, Bezalel Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Jerusalem. In 2000, Narit received the Kiffer Grant For Talented Young Artists, Bezalel Academy Grant for Excellence and Achievement.

Untitled 3min, s8mm, 1999
Director: Adam Rabinowitz

"Frame-by-frame animation, using tens of thousands of stickers on thousands of standard A4 papers.
When Albers meets Disney, The Kibbutz and The Israeli Military Prison No.4.
The work of the Bauhaus student is a hollow and anemic replica of the master’s work.
The master’s work, duplicated and blown up will travel to the realms of the psychedelic.
The idea of the Modern, as understood and practiced in peripheral Israel of the 1950’s and 60’s, far away from it’s cultural centers in Europe and North America, tried to reflect the Zionist values in a brutal and clear sense. Once practiced outside of the Zionist system, a stew of anemia and psychedelia has emerged to form a melancholic collective image, forever longing its cultural foundations, which have been victimized by blindness, brutality and a very hot climate."-Adam Rabinowitz

Adam Rabinowitz, born in Israel in 1973, lives and works in Tel-Aviv. Graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem (Department of Fine Arts) in 1998. Solo Exhibitions at Mary Faouzy Gallery, Jaffa, Dvir Gallery, Tel-Aviv, The Midrasha Gallery, Kalmania. Participated in numerous group exhibitions in major museums in Israel, and in several second rate museums in Argentina, Italy and Germany.