Exhibition
Cars at a standstill, with running engines, in evening traffic - Tel Aviv is the location for Yael Bartana's video work, Trembling Time, from 2001. The artist, who lives in Israel and the Netherlands, shows a minute of commemorative silence on Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel's Wars, which is called out over the entire country with sirens, bringing all of life's activities to a brief, momentary standstill. "Government-organised commemorative events, ceremonies and military celebrations define the tradition and put their stamp on the national identity. They are effective and therefore dangerous phenomena, which maintain patterns of loyalty and ignorance. What fascinates me is the dynamic of a state that can dictate a certain political attitude, and the individual that adheres to it." (Yael Bartana)
Similarly, the video work of Hungarian artist Janos Sugár confronts issues of power and powerlessness of the individual confronted with the state's authority. In his video The Typewriter of the literate, 2002, Sugar shows photographs culled from newspapers and magazines depicting the popular Russian Kalashnikov machine-gun in a great variety of situations ranging from proud warriors brandishing their weapons to rebels slain by the weapon. The individual stills are connected by dint of a cross-fading technique, the machine-gun remaining as the sole static element.
"I always collected particular images. I call it collecting analogies. For instance, I take a picture whenever l see a broken shop window, or a religious graffiti, or a piece of furniture on the street, etc. I like those series of images, connected only by a similar detail, it represents a special kind of narrative." (Janos Sugár)
