דוד בן-גוריון ומורשתו בראי האמנות בישראל

פתיחה רשמית: 27 באפריל 2010
נעילת התערוכה 8 :ביוני 2010



התערוכה מוצגת בגלריה לאמנות ע"ש אברהם ברון,

בניין הספרייה המרכזית ע"ש זלמן ארן,
ובמרכז המבקרים ע"ש ג'ורג' שרוט,
המרכז האוניברסיטאי ע"ש סמואל ומירדה איירטון,
קריית האוניברסיטה ע"ש משפחת מרקוס, באר שבע



הגלריות פתוחות לקהל:

בימים א'-ה' 8:30 – 19:00
בימי ו' 8:30-12:30





לא פחות מ-60 אמנים שיציגו 100 עבודות, משתתפים בתערוכה.

התערוכה, נאצרה על ידי פרופ' חיים מאור
וסטודנטים/יות בקורס אוצרות שבהנחייתו.



האמנים המשתתפים:

פאריד אבו שקרה, יעקב אגם, אייל און, אבישי אייל,

נטע אלקיים, אריאל אסאו, אריק אליהו בוקובזה,

יואב בן דוד, אבנר בר חמא, וורנר בראון, מיכה בר עם,

נחום גוטמן, פאול גולדמן, גרי גולדשטיין, יאיר גרבוז,

משה גרשוני, יוסף ג'וזף דדון, להב הלוי, חאדר ואשח,

יעקב חפץ, דוד טרטקובר, דימה יוזפוביץ, יצחק ימין,

שלמה כהן, אבנר כץ, שמואל כץ, יובל כספי,

פנחס ליטבינובסקי, מושיק לין, אורי ליפשיץ, חיים מאור,

גיא מורד, מוטי מזרחי, עידו מיכאלי, רפי מימון,

יונתן ה. משעל, נועם נדב, שלמה סוריאנו, חנוך פיבן,

אורי פינק, חיים פינקלשטיין, דוד פרלוב, זויה צ'רקסקי,

מישל קישקה, דני קרוון, איליה רבינוביץ, אסנת רבינוביץ,

ראובן רובין, דוד רובינגר, בנו רותנברג, דן רייזנר,

קרן שפילשר, תמיר שר



בחירות אישיות: ד"ר חיים גרוסמן מאוספים פרטיים,

רות לובשבסקי מאוסף יד יערי, אורית ציון–אבקסיס

מאוסף לע"מ, בועז פרימרמן מאוסף טוביהו



פרופ' מאור: "התערוכה בוחנת את ההתייחסות של אמנים ישראלים שונים אל דמותו של בן -גוריון כאדם, כמנהיג וכמיתוס. לצד מנסחי הקול ההגמוני, הרשמי, הממלכתי, ניתנה במה גם לרב-קוליות חדשה ושונה - קולות ה'אחרים'. אל מול ספקטרום הייצוגים הנע בין "הזקן" הארכאי לבין בן-גוריון שלי"(My BG) ה"קוּלִי",, הצופים בתערוכה מוזמנים לבחון ולגלות מהו ומיהו בן-גוריון עבורם כיום", שכן העיסוק העכשווי בדמותו של האיש שעל שמו נקראת האוניברסיטה רלבנטי היום מתמיד".



מתוך עמדה א-היררכית, התערוכה מפגישה זה לצד זה מדיומים מגוונים מתחומי התרבות החזותית: רישום, ציור, פיסול, צילום, כרזות, קומיקס, קריקטורות, קולנוע, וידאו ומיצג. באמצעות המדיומים השונים דנים האמנים ובוחנים את דמותו הרבגונית של המנהיג בהיבטיה השונים, כולל השוליים והמוזרים ביותר. לצד תיאורים דוקומנטריים, אובייקטיביים ככל שניתן, של דוד בן-גוריון בשעותיו ההיסטוריות והגורליות או ברגעיו האינטימיים והאישיים, מוצגות עבודות אשר עוסקות בתיאורים מוקצנים, סובייקטיביים ואכספרסיביים, עבודות הנוקטות עמדה גלויה וישירה תוך ניתוץ המיתוס או בחינתו מחדש או תוך הצלבת הנרטיב ההיסטורי והסיפור האישי או המשפחתי של האמן.



במסגרת תערוכה זו מצטיירת דמות רבגונית וססגונית של בן-גוריון. בעוד שחלק מהעבודות מציגות אותו כדמות הירואית, גדולה מהחיים, עבודות אחרות חושפות צד פגיע ואנושי שלו. אמנים רבים משתמשים בדמותו של בן-גוריון על מנת להביע את עמדתם הביקורתית כלפי המציאות הישראלית העכשווית. למשל, "האיש העומד על הראש" המוצג בקריקטורות, פסיפס, ציור ופיסול מעלה שאלות לגבי הפער שבין ערכי הפשטות והצניעות של "פעם" לבין הנהנתנות ותרבות הצריכה של ימינו. עבודות עכשוויות בוחנות לרב באמצעות דמותו של בן-גוריון, את דרך הגשמת החלום הציוני ואת שברו. למרות הביקורת על בן-גוריון - המיתוס בראי ימינו אנו, עדיין דמותו, במסגרת תערוכה זו, מעוררת הערצה, ערגה וגעגועים למנהיגות אחרת ושונה ממה שיש היום.

Installation shots from the exhibition 'Drifting identity station'

photographs are made by Stefan Rusu

Drifting Identity Station

Drifting Identity Station
http://driftingidentitystation.com/

Opening: 16th of March, 18.00

Location: Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris
Adress: 150-154 rue du Faubourg St Martin - 75010 Paris
Phone: +33 153 26 21 83/+33 618 86 58 48


Open daily from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm and 2:30 – 6:00 pm



Participating researchers:
John Davis/media artist, Veceslav Druta/visual artist, Octavian Esanu/artist, art historian, Valéry Grancher/artist, Tilmann Meyer-Faje/visual artist, Petru Negura/sociologist, Ilya Rabinovich/visual artist, Mark Verlan/visual artist.

Designed and curated by Stefan Rusu, Drifting Identity Station was developed over the course of residency at Centre des Récollets and was supported by the City of Paris and the French Foreign Affairs Office.

The Station is modeled after former Soviet polar stations, which were used the 1950s to explore the arctic environment in extreme cold. Drifting Identity Station operates in the harsh climate associated with neo-liberal winter, while researchers interested in the socio-political environment use various devices and methodologies to collect and monitor the identity data relevant in the given context. While exploring the frozen landscape, researchers analyze old trajectories for the formation of identity and attempt to determinate the intensity and temperature of the recent political debates, which have polarized the issue of the identity of the state and its inhabitants. Within the context of Moldova, the urgency behind this exploratory stance toward the discourse of identity has become all the more relevant after the protests following recent parliamentary elections on April 7, 2009. The subsequent new elections in July 2009 produced an important shift in the political spectrum from the extreme left to the neoliberal right. This has precipitated important changes in the political orientation of the country: it has initiated the process of an associate EU partnership, restarted negotiations for NATO membership, and has contradicting the policy of Moldovan “neutrality” which has historically been dictated by Russian geopolitical interests in the region.

In the video “Gomenidan is alive” by Mark Verlan we found the artist himself exiled in an individual research unit, which is, buried underground. Located in the woods next to his studio right in the middle of Chisinau, the unit is where he concentrated daily on analyzing the data received from outside world.

While meditating on the symbolic function of the museums in various contexts Ilya Rabinovich confronted a society that is constantly rewriting its history by gradually rejecting elements of its recent past. In this context he decided to investigate the representation of dichotomous structures: he visually juxtaposes idyllic paintings from the Ethnography Museum in Chisinau, which depict Moldovan landscapes as existing since the genesis of science and myth—a potential Garden of Eden— with images of the apocalypse, i.e. photographs and material proof of the Soviet catastrophe. He thus makes a clear statement about the timeline of modern and recent Moldovan history, about the dream and its disastrous realization.

Tilman Meyer-Faje explored a series of elements typical of the former Soviet structure in the Republic of Moldova. He chooses to remix images that have been made by someone else in an attempt to find a specifically Moldovan pattern.

Veaceslav Druta presents a film in which he questions French and Moldovan citizens in an attempt to survey their understanding of the notion of identity. A GPS device, a symbol of globalization and a navigational aid, appears throughout discussions. The GPS also “talks” in various languages, some of which are unknown to the navigators. As a result, the device creates disorientation and causes a loss of destination.

Octavian Esanu excavated “Strashilki” (“sadistic little poems,” or simply “little horror poems”) from the Soviet past. This is a children’s literary genre that emerged anonymously in the Soviet Union during the 1970s. For his artist book he translated, interpreted, and wrote original couplets following the poetic style of this literary form little known in the West. He also designed and illustrated the book, which aims to provide two perspectives on the socialist-capitalist polarity, which the author considers to have shaped his worldview.

Valéry Grancher through a picture of a meteo station and a video performance called "Where is our mind" is questioning the perception of our environment at our world limit though rationalism and subjectivism.
"Where is our mind?" is a sentence written on the paper by watercolor mixed with 30 000 years old glacier water. The message was attached to a meteo balloon which was sent to stratosphere of 35 000 meters altitude, where the balloon exploded and fail on to the ground. Through his video Valery Grancher is questioning the status of scientist approach 'Does Science deal with Icarus myth ?'

Using polarity as a departure point in his film “Mark You Make Believe My Dear, Yes” media artist John Davis resurrected Soviet propaganda films from the 1980s as a means of animating specters from recent history. Commenting on the nature of Moldovan identity, Davis states that shifting identities are nothing new in the wake of major political and social upheaval, yet Moldova is a particularly complex case study.

In his text Petru Negura analyze the position and role of writers under the Stalinist regime, who operated on the one hand as social engineers of a faked “Moldavian” identity, who preserved and defined its characteristics over the extended period of socialist modernization. On the other hand, these writers also developed a very professional tool, i.e. the Romanian language, which is perceived today as an achievement and an important mark of Romanian identity, an outcome that transcended the process itself.

The data gathered and presented by researchers within the framework of the Drifting Station represent an attempt to visualize the current state of different Moldavian identities, starting with the identity imposed by Soviet propaganda and social engineering campaigns between 1940-1992 in a territory widely known as the Republic of Moldova (formerly the 16th Republic of USSR). The ideologists of the Soviet Union embarked on a campaign to fundamentally alter the behavior and ideals of Soviet citizens, to replace old social frameworks of a previously existing culture with a Soviet model, and to create the New Man.
With the new course taken by history after dismantling of socialist system there was a lack of a clear identity parole, and the 1990s evinced a pervasive shift and drift in identity. In the last decade the former Soviet concept of Moldovan identity was resurrected by new political players ranging from the extreme left (CPRM - Communist Party or Republic of Moldova) to the extreme right (PPCD – Popular Christian Democrat Party) of political spectrum. Following external and internal political agendas, political and social leaders, i.e. “engineers,” used the issue of identity as a political weapon against the threat of “Romanization” but also against integration into the EU community—with the purpose of preserving the “neutrality” of Moldova. What we have today, a result of speculations and past political games, is a society trapped between the Russian military influence in the region and the EU expansion process, situated between Romanian nationalism and the nostalgia for a mixture of communist regime and socialist utopia, between the expansive development of the open market and the aggressiveness of neo-liberal establishment.

Drifting Identity Station was initiated to monitor and preserve the data related to the evolving state of identity in a given context, here the context of Moldova. Visual art projects and written contributions that are on display in the Station comment on the evolution of the social engineering project and “Moldavian” identity at its current state. At the same time the artists assume the posture of researchers that collect the samples from the field in order to preserve the residual traces that rearticulate the post-socialist condition in Moldovan society now 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of Eastern Block.

Painting lesson

Work by Ilya Rabinovich- 'A lesson in Moldovan identity and painted landscapes':

Paying some visits to The Ethnography Museum in Chisinau, left me with overwhelming impressions. Studying the pictorial landscapes seen almost in each and every hall made me wander upon the roles and symbolism that those masterpieces are designated to convey upon the visitor.

While meditating on the symbolical functioning of the museum a Tchernichovsky's expression 'Man is Nothing but the Shape of His Native Landscape' kept re emerging in my mind.

The representation of dichotomy structures, visually supported by idyllic paintings, depicting Moldovan landscapes as existing since the scientific and mythological Genesis- the possible Garden of Eden till the apocalypse, presented by photographs and material evidences from the Soviet catastrophe made a clear statement about the Moldovan timeline, upon the dream and it's disaster.

But this conceptual dichotomy suffers from some drawbacks, namely the inability to position Moldova in relation to other landscapes and nations. Searching for maps or other representations of Moldova's borders and territory reveals a disturbing situation, namely Moldova is always depicted as a torn out of the glob territory surrendered by metal frames designed and produced during Soviet period.

Thus the painted landscapes and the maps serve as a metaphor for the Moldova's to redefine their own new national identity. From one hand they reject their recent past and from another they fall into the gap ob being in an empty void.




A work that will be exhibited as 35 mm slides with a slide projector.
You can see the digital format of the work at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ilyarabinovich/PaintingLesson#

Stage fondsenwerving Museutopia: een fotografisch onderzoeksproject naar musea van Moldavië.

De Amsterdamse beeldend kunstenaar Ilya Rabinovich (http://www.rhiz.eu/person-33501-en.html) heeft alle grote musea in de Moldavische hoofdstad Chisinau uitgebreid gefotografeerd. Zijn werk is een creatieve verkenning van de post-Sovjet Moldavische nationale identiteit. De foto's, vergezeld van essays van deskundigen op dit gebied (Viktor Misiano, Stefan Rusu, Bogdan Ghiu en Huub van Baar), vormen de basis voor een tweetalige publicatie (Roemeense/Engels), die wordt uitgegeven bij Alauda Publications (www.alaudapublications.nl).


Taken:
Assistentie bij fondsenwerving:
- Onderzoek naar de beschikbare fondsen en ondersteunings mogelijkheden die passen bij de opzet van de publicatie.
- Het schrijven van subsidie-aanvragen.


Profiel van de stagiair:
- MA niveau
- Interesse in kunst- en culturele geschiedenis van Oost-Europa; vertrouwdheid met Moldavië is een pré.
- Vloeiend Nederlands spreken en schrijven
- Bereidheid samen te werken met de kunstenaar en uitgever.


Wat bieden wij:
- Optimale begeleiding en feedback.
- Intellectueel uitdagende stage.
- Ervaring met redactioneel werk en kennismaking met het uitgeefproces.
- Naamsvermelding in de publicatie en gratis exemplaar.

Duur:
- 15 weken, parttime werk, bij voorkeur vanaf begin maart 2010.

Aanvraagprocedure:
Stuur vóór 1 maart 2010 een motivatie en een korte cv in het Nederlands aan: info@alaudapublications.nl met als onderwerp: "Stage Museutopia".

Voor vragen kunt u via e-mail contact opnemen met uitgeverij Alauda Publications.

Research/ editorial internship Museutopia: an artistic project on the museums of Moldova

Amsterdam-based visual artist Ilya Rabinovich (http://www.rhiz.eu/person-33501-en.html) has extensively photographed major museums in the Moldovan capital Chisinau. His photographic work is a creative exploration of post-Soviet Moldovan national identity. The photographs, accompanied by essays commissioned to experts in the field, form the basis for a bilingual publication (Rumanian/English), published by Alauda Publications (www.alaudapublications.com).


Tasks:
Assistance in fund raising:
- Research of available funds and support programs that suite the profile of the publication
- Writing grant applications and accompanying project brochures


Profile of intern:
- MA level
- Interest in art and cultural history of Eastern Europe; familiarity with Moldova would be of added advantage
- Fluent speaking and writing Dutch
- Willingness to work in cooperation with the artist and publisher

What we offer:
- Proper placement guidance and feedback
- Intellectually challenging research internship
- First-hand experience in editorial work and exposure to the publishing process
- Name mentioned in publication

Duration:
- 15 weeks’ part-time work preferably beginning March 2010.

Application procedure:
Send a motivation letter and a brief CV in Dutch to info@alaudapublications.nl with the subject reference: "Internship Muziotopia" before 1 March 2010
For questions and clarifications, you may contact Alauda Publications via email.

9th January 2010- invitation to the opening of REAR WINDOW followed by a party‏

MB Art Agency has the pleasure to invite you to the special opening of the exhibition



REAR WINDOW

An installation realized by Ilya Rabinovich

Saturday 9th of January 2010, between 19.00- 23.00 hours



MB Art Agency’s Project Space, Willemsparkweg 191, 1071 HA Amsterdam.



The opening will be followed by a party.

Practical Information: the venue is situated at the crossroad of Willemsparkweg and Cornelis Schuijtstraat, Tram no. 2, (tram stop Cornelis Schuijtstraat).

Confirmation is kindly required to: info@mbagency.nl or by phone: 0614789395 or 020.7861626.

On the upper floor of MB Agency’s building and in total dark, Ilya Rabinovich invites for a collective participation to a surprising and playful experience.

While entering the dark space of the exhibition, visitors will receive a small penlight and will be initiated to search for the hidden elements of the installation, a collection of Rear Window peep pictures realized by the artist during the year 2008.
The project is both witty and ironic as it plays with our unintentional tendency of spying our neighbours, something that feeds on our own deep-seated desires to watch others, without fear of being watched, in order to live through their experiences whilst sharing none of their physical or emotional existence/state. In this meticulously constructed setup, the watching process is shared and therefore it becomes a space of interaction and reflection.
Furthermore our urge to peep is indulged and we may temporarily escape and forget who we are as we become more and more involved in searching for the other images hidden in the exhibition space.