Yael Bartana

SALON POPULAIRE (KUNSTSAELE BERLIN)

Eröffnung Mittwoch 09.02. 18:00-21:00

Täglich 11:00-20:00

Yael Bartana’s Entartete Kunst Lebt (Degenerate Art Lives) alludes to the painting Kriegskrüppel (War Cripples, 1920) by German Expressionist Otto Dix (1891-1969). In 1937, the painting was included in the propaganda exhibition organized by the Nazis under the title Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). Like many of Dix’s works, it was probably destroyed during the Nazi regime. Bartana introduces the possibility of reconstructing Dix’s painting and its reinstatement to the ‘real world.’ This act of restoring the vanished past into the present by means of new technology and an animated film offers a new reading of the original work and its meaning in the past and in the present. Bartana thus explores the reference of one artist to the work of another, and the meaning of preserving and reconstructing a destroyed visual object by advanced technological means. Her work breathes ‘new life’ into the grotesque figures of Dix, through which the latter criticizes post-WWI Germany. This act of creation ‘ex nihilo’ sets the figures in motion, infusing them with false power which they did not originally possess, enabling them to keep moving. In Bartana’s work, as indicated by its title, Dix’s war cripples proudly carry and even physically produce live degenerate art. In their lives (and not by their deaths in war) − beaten, wounded, and exhausted − they declare their victory and the power of art.

Israel 2010, 16mm loop, b&w, sound, 5 minutes.

Yael Bartana, born 1970 in Kfar-Yehezkel, Israel, lives and works in Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. Her solo exhibitions include the Moderna Museet in Malmö (2010), the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2009), PS1 in New York (2008), the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv (2008), the Kunstverein in Hamburg (2007) and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (2006). She participated in the Sao Paolo Biennial (2010 and 2006), Documenta 12 in Kassel (2007) and the Istanbul Biennial (2005). Her films have been included in several international film festivals. Yael Bartana will represent Poland for the 54th edition of the Venice Biennial (2011).

Courtesy Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam and Sommer contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

We Will Be Strong In Our Weakness

“We direct our appeal not only to Jews. We accept into our ranks all those for whom there is no place in their homelands – the expelled and the persecuted. There will be no discrimination in our movement. We shall not ask about your life stories, check your residence cards or question your refugee status. We shall be strong in our weakness.” (JRMiP manifesto)

In 2007 Yael Bartana initiated the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP), a political movement that calls for the return of 3,300,000 Jews to the land of their forefathers: “We want to return! Not to Uganda, not to Argentina or to Madagascar, not even to Palestine. It is for Poland that we long, the land of our fathers and forefathers.” (JRMiP manifesto). The JRMiP can be read however in a broader context, apart from the complex Polish-Jewish relationship, as an experimental form of collective psychotherapy, through which national demons are stirred and dragged out into daylight. Bartana has made films with and about the movement, such as Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) (2007), Mur i Wieża (Wall and Tower) (2009) and the performance We Will Be Strong In Our Weakness (2010), in which Susanne Sachsse, as Rivka, publicly called forth the spirit of the movement. Since its foundation, the JRMiP has spread widely and found many followers.

In a next step the JRMiP invites selected festival guests – filmmakers, artists, and critics – to get involved in this collective process and to contribute their thoughts and proposals for the movement. The resulting video interviews will be presented at the cinema.

“With one religion, we cannot listen.

With one color, we cannot see.

With one culture, we cannot feel.

Without you we can’t even remember.

Join us, and Europe will be stunned! (JRMiP manifesto)

Yael Bartana, Camilla Nielsson, Susanne Sachsse, Marc Siegel, and the interviewees

Yael Bartana, born 1970 in Kfar-Yehezkel, Israel. The artist lives and works in Amsterdam and Tel Aviv.

Camilla Nielsson, born 1970. The filmmaker (The Children of Darfur, Mumbai Disconnected) lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Susanne Sachsse is a Berlin-based actress.

Marc Siegel is a Berlin-based film scholar and curator.