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CHRONICLE OF AN ASSASSINATION FORETOLD a project by

11 March – 5 June 2016

11, 12 and 13 March a cycle of screenings dedicated to the work of Gitai www.fondazionemaxxi.it

#AmosGitai

I have always thought that the majority of the people want peace and are ready to take risks in the name of peace. (Itzhak Rabin)

Rome, 10 March 2016. On the 4 th of November 1995, three bullets killed Itzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of a peace rallye in Tel Aviv, decreeing the end of the dreams of peace between Israel and Palestine, and marking a brusque return to political and geopolitical violence.

With the exhibition Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold curated by Hou Hanru with Anne Palopoli at MAXXI from 11 March to 5 June 2016 , the film director Amos Gitai is sharing with the public his inquiry of the event and its historical and social implications through a creative process extending his latest film Rabin, The Last Day . In this cinematic oeuvre, Amos Gitai investigates the complexity of the political dynamics in the Israeli society and critically reveals the tension between different political and religious groups leading to the assassination of Itzhak Rabin, a traumatic event still strongly impacting the change of global geopolitics today.

The exhibition, coproduced by MAXXI and the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts (Brussels) is installed in the Gian Ferrari Gallery and presents five projections : the demonstrations against Itzhak Rabin held in Jerusalem in 1994 and 1995, the peace rallye in Tel Aviv in 1995 and three videos on the assassination of Itzhak Rabin.

Alongside these screenings, Manifestants pour la paix, Place des Rois d’Israël Tel-Aviv, 4 novembre 1995 , a ceramic sculpture work with projection, created especially for the installation, 3 collages and Série sur l’assassinat d’Yitzhak Rabin nine photographs in a configuration that refers to the narrative construction of Rabin, the Last Day . The film is characterised by the overlaying and repetition of documentary and fictional elements suggesting the complex nature of contemporary reality. The exhibition is completed by three sound tracks reproduced in areas of the museum outside the exhibition hall: the sound of the assassin’s shots excerpt from Rabin, the Last Day , reading The War Of The Sons Of The Lights Against The Sons Of The Darkness excerpt from The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus and in Metamorphosis of a melody by Amos Gitai, singing Yet Each Man Kills The Things He Loves from the Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde with music by Markus and Simon Stockhausen.

Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold is an exhibition conceived by Amos Gitai, who was trained as an architect, as a single site-specific installation that analyses and renders public the results of 20 years of research by the filmmaker, revealing previously unpublished details regarding the political struggles of 1995 and the repercussions they have had on contemporary society. Akin to a work of architecture, this exhibition/installation emphasises the “topographical” nature of Amos Gitai’s work and its connections with the idea of the transmission of memory.

Gitai has always based his work on the historical dynamics of the world, with particular attention being paid to Israel, revealing the complexity of the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East; with Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold , the artist tells the complex story of a young state, with all its paradoxes, its questions, its aspirations and its conflicts, leading us to reflect on the social and political evolution of the world in general.

This exhibition takes its place in a broader strand of research that MAXXI has been developing since 2014, an investigation of the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East through the vision and interpretation of artists, architects, photographers and filmmakers. The project, launched in 2014 with the exhibition devoted to contemporary art in Iran (Unedited History. Iran 1960- 2014) proceeds with the current focus on the contemporary art scene in Istanbul (Istanbul. Passion, Joy, Fury, through to 8 May 2016), while next year attention will turn to Beirut and Lebanon. Again in 2017, MAXXI will be hosting an exhibition featuring masterpieces from the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, some of which have never previously left Iran.

As Giovanna Melandri , President of the Fondazione MAXXI, says: “With this exhibition MAXXI wishes to pay tribute to a great man of peace. Art is one means of understanding the world in which we live and even the international relations that traverse it. Once again, artistic expression can be an instrument of cultural diplomacy."

On the occasion of the exhibition, on 11, 12 and 13 March 2016 the museum will be presenting a cycle of screenings dedicated to the work of Amos Gitai (MAXXI Auditorium | admittance €7.00 – concessions €5.00). Friday 11 March, 7.00 PM , the first screening, preceded by a discussion with the director , will be of the film Rabin, the Last Day . This will be followed on Saturday 12 March at 9.00 PM by Esther (1986) and on Sunday 13 March by the double bill of (1999) at 6.30 PM and (2000) at 9.00 PM .

The press kit and images of the exhibition can be downloaded from the Reserved Area of the Fondazione MAXXI’s website at http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/area-riservata/ by typing in the password areariservatamaxxi

MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts www.fondazionemaxxi.it - info: 06.320.19.54; [email protected] opening hours: 11.00 AM – 7.00 PM (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday) 11.00 AM – 10.00 PM (Saturday) Closed Mondays, 1 May and 25 December

MAXXI Press Office [email protected] tel. +39.06.324861

Since I was a young I’ll install Boy on the Carmel hill The relationship between We have been endoctrinated The paper documents By artistic perceptions. Of our research Munio Gitai Weinraub, Which will be shown My father, had fragments On the walls Of stories relating to the The sound components Time he spent at the Transmuted by speakers Bauhaus. Mies van der Rohe The video elements Albers, Schlemmer, Projected on the walls Kandinsky Hannes Meyer The canvas of Dadaists Collages which portray Were there... Juxtapositions of hybrid And Efratia my mother Elements With her love of Literature and poetry. Black and white Ink injections on Now Cotton surface of the scene of the assassination. In retrospect A series of notes on I understand that you can’t The assassination Work artistically That esplode Without a context. A context that is both And perhaps Artistic and political. Decapitated Efforts at Reconciliation When Goebbels Decided to close all the The tension and geometric relationships Modernist schools and the Between documents and fictional Bauhaus Representations And replace them with Pompous Nazi architecture The exhibition It was because he saw in a Is here Certain kind of minimalist form To expose the A menace Process To the authoritarian dictatorship... Of elaboration of An artistic gesture Dialectically, one may That is derived Understand that the arts From Have always carried a A traumatic event Subversive potential That shouldn’t be wasted In a conversation with On futile formalistically Hans Ulrich Obrist Oriented works. He asked me an excellent Question: In order to respond to the question above What is the right distance? Let’s continue To redefine and reflect, Or let me paraphrase it Through artistic prisms, Differently: The impact of the What is the classical Politically motivated Role of an artist as a healer Assassination (see the Chen Zhen drum chair he left with me Of Yitzhak Rabin One of them as a statement Of a heritage that has to be In this exhibit Continued) At the MAXXI What did Jeanne Moreau

Whisper in my ear When she read A letter of Efratia... or in other words How can memory be used As an agent of Change? After all, Ideas And artistic acts Are also strong... Not only bullets!!! (three exclamation marks In memory of the three Bullets that shot) RABIN On his LAST DAY

Amos Gitai, January, 2016