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Experimental film, by its very nature, explores the limits of cinematic creation. It challenges existing formats and subject matters within the existing frameworks in the field of cinema and television, offering a fresh take on the topics dealt with, the formal structures and the interrelations between cinema and a constantly changing reality.

The New Foundation for Cinema and Television has been at the forefront of filmmaking for 16 years, and alongside the creation of a wide-ranging body of hundreds of documentaries and dramas, has been at the forefront of experimental film and “new media” in Israel, with new and challenging projects that examine and expand the boundaries of filmmaking as we know it.

The Foundation is proud to see the completion of the experimental film project Neo-Barbarism, made in cooperation with “Rothschild 69”, and congratulates the filmmakers, and the directors of the project Noam Segal and Naomi Aviv, for the works inspired by the project’s complex subject, a subject that calls for the individual to grapple with reality and its governing forces, demanding his or her attention, reaction and even resources and life.

Filmmakers who have taken part in the Foundation’s previous projects in the field of experimental film have gone on to break into the center of the world’s stage and earn world renown for themselves and their work, and we are confident that the same will happen here, and that the works included in this project will become significant building blocks and influential factors in filmmaking in its most profound cultural, social and artistic sense.

With best wishes,

Dorit Inbar, Director General

The New Foundation for Cinema and Television

70 69 68 בעמוד הבא: גלעד רטמן שלח את עמי 2002 וידאו, 4 דקות

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“Shame, shame, shame – that is the history of are operating out of an artistic-political motivation man!” that draws its logic from an Israeli reality going mad and from the way in which the “dumbness” Friedrich Nietzsche1 threatens to dictate a destructive future for this conflict-ridden place. Crucial issues that cry out Small though it is,” claims Roberta for a territorial solution have accompanied this Smith, art critic for the New York place from the moment it gained independence, Times, “Israel has been providing but it has never been so clear that those who do more than its share of artistic talent not speak the language of the occupier are seen to“ the global art circuit, especially where video as foreigners and as enemies within who are and performance art are concerned…it suggests conspiring to destroy us and therefore must be that a certain chemistry often exists between subjected to various acts of deterritorialisation – Israel — its history, landscape, politics and cities that is, to be expelled from the country or have — and young artists wielding video cameras.”2 the historical memory of this place expelled Indeed Israeli art, and more precisely video art, from within them. The “neo-barbaristic” artists is thriving, enjoying international momentum themselves are pushed into a corner in which they for the first time in its history. More and more are forced to experience themselves through the contemporary Israeli video artists are establishing eyes of the regime as those who are going to be themselves professionally in New York, Berlin defined as, and maybe already are, hostile citizens and London. Does this artistic boom testify to with the consciousness of a minority community an Israeli society healthier and stronger than ever loathsome and irrelevant to the fantasy of Greater before? Maybe the opposite is true. The more the Israel as a Jewish state with no enemies or local small pond becomes turbid and shabby, the opposition within. Their very humanist stances more the narcissi of video art teem and blossom and their beliefs are vilified again and again by in it, and the more the critical position of their government members such as Foreign Minister works becomes sophisticated. Within art – which Avigdor Lieberman, as can be learned from Yisrael is never part of any political agenda – video art is Beytenu’s website. Therefore, it seems that certain a medium that produces more hostility than love. artists adopt “barbaric” modes of operation also Nonetheless, it is true that the last decade has seen in order to actualise the label that marks them a renaissance in this field in Israel. It should be as unfriendly to the contemporary political noted that the formation of the relatively short language, and maybe also in order to practice the history of this artistic medium has also been experience of themselves and their values being contributed to by Israeli artists such as Benni Efrat alienated and excluded from the contemporary and Buki Schwartz, who from the early 1970s political agenda, an agenda that celebrates the took part in defining the medium, its borders and frightening narrowing of the gap between the its language. right and the left and the monstrous widening of the gap between the powerful and the weakened. Neo-Barbarism is an exhibition based entirely on The neo-barbaric artists are not concerned with video works and video installations, although this exploring the human origins of violence or phrase could refer to numerous and diverse bodies investigating the nature of hatred, envy or the fear of work shown right now in galleries and museums of the other. Their point of departure is that the around Israel. Nevertheless, the artists chosen to barbaric, i.e., the other, the foreign, the violent, 
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67 struggle that these artists, as well as many others, are waging against its destructive consequences. It is the discourse of loyalty spreading through Israel that generates the discourse of betrayal, since, Almost all the artists participating in the exhibition when there is no way out, the only possible line reject the position of the prophet at the gate, who of escape is a lack of self-loyalty and a willingness protests against injustices that never incriminate to move the self into a territory of undefined himself. The self-righteous attitude, in which an identity. Kafka demonstrates this in his story art work functions as an index of a social malaise, is “The Metamorphosis”, in which Gregor Samsa replaced with a parasitic attitude and a willingness turns into an insect or a bug vaguely identified to put the creative individual in a position of as a semi-cockroach. Self-betrayal, and a mental betrayal and disloyalty, not only to the medium – transformation of identity, is what the State of Israel the “host” from within which the artist carries out now demands of its citizens. It demands it especially his or her eroding activity – but also self-betrayal, of the Arabs: betray your loyalty to yourselves and into which the viewers are co-opted as well. your rights, stoop lower and lower before the state. It is Israel, armed to the hilt with means of murder, A typical example of sophisticated displays of self- killing and primeval xenophobia, which instead betrayal is provided by Roee Rosen, an artist whose of promising loyalty to its citizens and protecting works place the viewers in a position of moral their physical and mental safety and security, seeks ambiguity, attributed not necessarily to the smug to impose on them a law that duns their loyalty. society from which he extracts his protagonists, In his 1651 essay “Leviathan”, Hobbes offered the but to himself and to the viewers. Rosen himself state to human beings as a social contract or as a is the exploitative element; it is he who behaves cure for their innate barbarism; for their innate with insensitivity towards different sectors of the tendency to jump at each other’s throats at the public, he who fails to shake off accusations such as: first opportunity. But today, the same state that was impersonation, racism, child abuse, pornography, supposed to protect a population from behaving prejudice and self-righteousness concerning like a pack of wolves ceases to protect its citizens, values of religion or gender. The viewers of his instead attacking, impoverishing, damaging them, works feel that they themselves are no less guilty and then demanding their loyalty. than whatever intangible social body it is easy to point a blaming finger at. Not a single moment passes here without some injustice sponsored by politics, and what is Contemporary Israeli art features a variety of contemporary politics if not smug spokesmanship strategies of betrayal: the betrayal of the minority, from within the belly of capitalism, the worship the betrayal of the weakened. From betraying of money and financial interests, and the the various standards that have taken hold of abandonment of cultural capital and the healthy the cultural products - artistic, literary, theatrical need to develop and increase it and draw from and especially TV and cinema structures (while its strength. The media reflects exactly the same simultaneously using them) – to betraying the capitalistic interests and therefore is probably rationality of traditional Western thought and heading towards entropy. How far can you lower creating autonomic enclaves of incomprehensibility the common denominator, whose representative and idiotism. will always be seen as inferior to the policymakers? How far can you empty the flat, shrivelled, A new discourse flourishes on the Israeli street: the emaciated belly of the media? The format is the discourse of loyalty. Everyone discusses the proto- content: populist and aggressive forms running on fascistic Loyalty Law, demanding a declaration of empty is the outward appearance of television as loyalty from citizens of Israel and from naturalised well as its inner world. citizens. Hello Mussolini. This proposed law turns the state into a fetish that stands above any law. It The show Neo-Barbarism wishes to examine contradicts the Declaration of Independence, that electronic media representations and the discourse promised equality and tolerance for all the state’s of national paranoia, which is taking Israel back to “others”. When members of the government the survival laws of the Diaspora and the ghetto. strive to turn the state into a fetish and its citizens Avigdor Lieberman for instance, Israel’s Foreign and naturalised citizens into slaves; when the state Minister, has not actually managed to accomplish seeks the right to penetrate into the depth of its his Aliyah to a sovereign, secular and strong Israeli citizens’ psyche and examine their consciousness – state, because of the diasporic phobias underlying the day is not far when we shall see the realisation his policy of paranoia. In the always persecuted of an absurd scenario in which the regime of and persecuting Israel, the people is given at any power, surveillance and control will order a moment to a renewed outbreak of the traumas genetic test of every embryo in order to detect of the past. This evil spirit no longer accompanies the disloyalty genes that its parents or ancestors reality as a shadow from the past; it itself is the might have bequeathed it. reality, invaded and dominated by the demon

66 – ”of history. The works of the artists participating them with a “true” reality, or reality “as it is מימין: יולי אלוני-פרימור in the exhibition Neo-Barbarism radiate some it is precisely there that a renewed, postmodern גרבו, פרט 2010 kind of “crazy” dialect, some kind of “babbling” willingness is born, a willingness to trust what language, some kind of comic jargon. It is not so announces itself as artificial and processed. It is טכניקה מעורבת :Right much a cure for situations of distress and existential precisely theatre, with its mimesis, which is by Yuli Aloni - Primor anxiety – situations which intensify the more the definition far from reality, with its role playing and Garbo, Detail 2010 citizen feels that the state or the regime have lost the actors’ necessary self-betrayal in order to better Mixed Media their rationality – but rather a place of refuge. represent others – it is precisely theatre that offers us “highbrow culture” again, staged perhaps, but Every system tends to be indifferent to the in a manner that lays bare its seams and takes apart individuals comprising it, and its very existence some of its principles, allowing the possibility of produces indifference in each of its members. a more distilled observation of reality. See the The neo-barbaric artist feeds on the materials of films of the Danish director Lars von Trier, “The the insane reality, turning them into a Bakhtinian Idiots” (1998) and “Dogville” (2003), and their or Foucauldian Carnivalesque. The figures preoccupation with moral ambivalence and evil. comprising the exhibition and appearing in the majority of the works are not exactly clownish The laws of survival of the art shown in this or idiotic figures (though these do exist), but they exhibition, that is, neo-barbaristic art, can be possess a comic frequency and reflect situations likened to the laws guiding martial arts such as Judo of transformation and inversion, that exist in full or Jujutsu. These state: adopt the violent energy of accordance with the need to be loyal to oneself the aggressor, co-opt it, rob them of it in order through a paradoxical presentation of wholesale to turn the situation on its head and undermine betrayal. In other words: only those who are their stability, or lift the terrifying Cyclops one prepared to betray themselves are truly being loyal millimetre above the ground in order to empty it to themselves. of its strength, its source of energy, and overcome it. The neo-barbaric practice proposes using the The barbaric parts that we have learned to hide, energy of the major, dominant other, in order repress, sublimate and disguise – by virtue of being to extract from it phases of gaping, unsolvable civilised people and mainly in order to make paradoxicality. others think highly of us – come to the fore. The threatening forest seen from afar, beyond the An extreme case of such paradoxicality can be private territory, advances and marches back inside. seen in “For the Love of God”, a piece by the In many of the contemporary video installations British artist Damien Hirst. This piece, considered shown in this exhibition there is a marked tendency the most expensive item of modern art ever, to substitute the traditional formula of catharsis, consists of a platinum cast human skull from the and sublimation, art’s cultural inheritance, for 18th century, encrusted with 8,601 diamonds a formula of confusion, lack of release and de- worth 99 million dollars and weighing 1,106.18 sublimation. This does not necessarily mean some carats (including a pink diamond, weighing 52.4 previously unseen liberated expression, flowing carats, located in the skull’s forehead). out like epileptic saliva. Most of the artists taking part in this exhibition display an intelligent and The moment of birth of this flickering skull, skilful use of formats of entertainment and culture. exhibited in total darkness, has every chance of In order to achieve some intellectual hygiene, they becoming the moment marking the birth of 21st- rummage through these empty formats as if they century art, in 2007, exactly one hundred years (the formats themselves) were burrows or lairs, after the birth of 20th-century art with Picasso’s and as if burrowing under them might lead to a “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”. Like Picasso’s line of escape. painting, Hirst’s piece is based on a primitive mask (though Aztec rather than African). Hirst’s skull The barbaric enemy manifests itself in formulaic also recalls the golden death mask of the Egyptian entertainment, which demands a monopoly on king Tutankhamun, though the latter was made by the mob and dictates to it amnesia. The enemy is an anonymous artist to the order of an omnipotent the outer skin of form that has cast out its content. ruler, rather than by a private artist, whose joy of life The enemy is the glove that has consumed the as a new billionaire has been threatened by death, hand. The enemy is the stultifying totem of which is reflected in everything and triumphs television, and the way to escape its tyranny is over everything. The piece “For the Love of God” to use the video camera and television and film is an emblem of the 21st century, distinguishing it formats to perform defiantly artificial theatrical from the 20th century. How and why? – Because acts of “escape”. For it is precisely where reality of the money. The same money that guides the programmes have already lost the viewers’ television shows, the theatre and the films made “suspension of disbelief” – where the viewers’ for the masses – money, and nothing else. Money disbelief is directed to the pretence of presenting is rating and rating is money and so on repeatedly.

65 Money is what causes a dwindling of the spirit in the vein of Sherrie Levine, who appropriates Money is what causes a dwindling of the spirit in the vein of Sherrie Levine, who appropriates among leaders, government and academia. Money canonical paintings by male artists who have among leaders, government and academia. Money canonical paintings by male artists who have changes language. Money even became attached changed the face of art history.3 changes language. Money even became attached changed the face of art history.3 to the last war in Gaza, operation “Cast Lead”, to the last war in Gaza, operation “Cast Lead”, contributing to it the military-political idiom It seems that in the last decade Israeli art has contributing to it the military-political idiom It seems that in the last decade Israeli art has “target bank”. “The question is how funny money learned to extract from reality also a growing “target bank”. “The question is how funny money learned to extract from reality also a growing is,” wonders aloud Suzie Rosen, the satanic stand- stream of works whose default choice is to is,” wonders aloud Suzie Rosen, the satanic stand- stream of works whose default choice is to up comedian starring in Roee Rosen’s film wallow in cultural patterns that evoke disgust, up comedian starring in Roee Rosen’s film wallow in cultural patterns that evoke disgust, “Hilarious”, shown in this exhibition. vulgarity and nausea. It is possible that in art, as “Hilarious”, shown in this exhibition. vulgarity and nausea. It is possible that in art, as in medicine and mathematics, the formula of a in medicine and mathematics, the formula of a The exhibition Neo-Barbarism deals with the minus multiplied by a minus indeed yields a plus. The exhibition Neo-Barbarism deals with the minus multiplied by a minus indeed yields a plus. moral consequences of artistic representation in an Against an atmosphere of permanent political moral consequences of artistic representation in an Against an atmosphere of permanent political age that is fed up with the victim’s cry, preferring paralysis, and when the general despair emerges as age that is fed up with the victim’s cry, preferring paralysis, and when the general despair emerges as instead to perform a “ventriloquistisation” (from an existential consensus, it seems that Israeli art is instead to perform a “ventriloquistisation” (from an existential consensus, it seems that Israeli art is the word ventriloquist) of the sovereign’s voice changing: it is no longer lyrical, abstract or sparse, the word ventriloquist) of the sovereign’s voice changing: it is no longer lyrical, abstract or sparse, and deal with the digestion system of the artist it is no longer minimalist, conceptual or cerebral. and deal with the digestion system of the artist it is no longer minimalist, conceptual or cerebral. and art. No one can claim to own the intuitive In a more liberated than ever artistic space, a and art. No one can claim to own the intuitive In a more liberated than ever artistic space, a phrase “neo-barbarism”. If it has appeared so far, it de-sublimitive genus has grown and ramified. phrase “neo-barbarism”. If it has appeared so far, it de-sublimitive genus has grown and ramified. has been hand in hand with a sense of regression Its roots can be traced back to 1970s body and has been hand in hand with a sense of regression Its roots can be traced back to 1970s body and into unbearable moments of extremity, moments performance artists – such as Yocheved Weinfeld into unbearable moments of extremity, moments performance artists – such as Yocheved Weinfeld in which culture is threatened by the civilisation and Moti Mizrahi, or to 1980s ones like Uri in which culture is threatened by the civilisation and Moti Mizrahi, or to 1980s ones like Uri it has developed. Katzenstein, among whose most refined actions it has developed. Katzenstein, among whose most refined actions as an artist-shaman is a consistent drawing of his as an artist-shaman is a consistent drawing of his In Israel, a state which from its inception has own blood, used as ink to write and draw on walls In Israel, a state which from its inception has own blood, used as ink to write and draw on walls worshipped only at the altar of the Moloch of and paper surfaces. Young women have literally worshipped only at the altar of the Moloch of and paper surfaces. Young women have literally security (joined by money), art struggles for its fainted during some of his performances. Sigalit security (joined by money), art struggles for its fainted during some of his performances. Sigalit very legitimacy. Nevertheless, Israel has been the Landau, who since the 1990s has been operating very legitimacy. Nevertheless, Israel has been the Landau, who since the 1990s has been operating site of an intense and sophisticated artistic activity, out of urgency and postmodern cultural alarm, site of an intense and sophisticated artistic activity, out of urgency and postmodern cultural alarm, whose peaks are customarily located in the has consistently worked to reinforce the radical whose peaks are customarily located in the has consistently worked to reinforce the radical conceptual art of the 1970s. The art made in the spirit and transfuse it into the blood of Israeli art. conceptual art of the 1970s. The art made in the spirit and transfuse it into the blood of Israeli art. last two-three decades has also shown the positive These artists are joined by a long list of wild- last two-three decades has also shown the positive These artists are joined by a long list of wild- influences of conceptual thinking, bequeathed to hearted artists who stuff their canvases with influences of conceptual thinking, bequeathed to hearted artists who stuff their canvases with the young by 1970s artists who today work as art myriad scenes of destruction, hunting, and with the young by 1970s artists who today work as art myriad scenes of destruction, hunting, and with teachers at major institutions. As in the rest of the images of odious carcasses. Avner Ben Gal, Ruti teachers at major institutions. As in the rest of the images of odious carcasses. Avner Ben Gal, Ruti Western world, contemporary art-making in Israel Nemet, and even aesthetes like Gil Shani, Jossef Western world, contemporary art-making in Israel Nemet, and even aesthetes like Gil Shani, Jossef enjoys maximum openness and total freedom in Krispel and Guy Goldstein are some of the names enjoys maximum openness and total freedom in Krispel and Guy Goldstein are some of the names terms of what is allowed and what is not allowed. whose works’ blood circulation can be invigorated terms of what is allowed and what is not allowed. whose works’ blood circulation can be invigorated Everything is allowed. by stuffed or dead animals. They are joined by Everything is allowed. by stuffed or dead animals. They are joined by self-compassionless arch-absurdists such as Gilad self-compassionless arch-absurdists such as Gilad As background for the thriving of “new-barbaric Ratman, Lior Waterman, Assi Meshulam, Eitan As background for the thriving of “new-barbaric Ratman, Lior Waterman, Assi Meshulam, Eitan art” in Israel, a place that lives on outrage, we Ben Moshe, Roman Baimbayev, Maya Zack, and art” in Israel, a place that lives on outrage, we Ben Moshe, Roman Baimbayev, Maya Zack, and should point out the tendency of local art to stir even a delicate artist such as Sharon Balaban, who should point out the tendency of local art to stir even a delicate artist such as Sharon Balaban, who clear of the sensational and immerse itself in the has developed a minimalist video language. clear of the sensational and immerse itself in the has developed a minimalist video language. sublimative. We are used to assume that when sublimative. We are used to assume that when reality is so powerful and absurd, art does not even The day before undergoing Caesarean surgery reality is so powerful and absurd, art does not even The day before undergoing Caesarean surgery try to compete with the its jungle-like intensities. for the birth of her second child, Balaban sent try to compete with the its jungle-like intensities. for the birth of her second child, Balaban sent Therefore it makes sense that in England for us some edited material for the exhibition Neo- Therefore it makes sense that in England for us some edited material for the exhibition Neo- example, a place where existential security is not Barbarism, in which she proposes a new recipe for example, a place where existential security is not Barbarism, in which she proposes a new recipe for threatened on a daily basis, and where there is what “carcasses with whipped cream”. The film shows threatened on a daily basis, and where there is what “carcasses with whipped cream”. The film shows can be imagined as mental space and leisure, an the pregnant belly of the artist and her hand, armed can be imagined as mental space and leisure, an the pregnant belly of the artist and her hand, armed art would emerge for instance that is permanently with a container for spraying whipped cream. The art would emerge for instance that is permanently with a container for spraying whipped cream. The fascinated by a “gothic” culture of death and belly is placed in front of perching vultures in a fascinated by a “gothic” culture of death and belly is placed in front of perching vultures in a decadence, violence, degeneration, animalism and feeding station. The station itself is full of carcasses, decadence, violence, degeneration, animalism and feeding station. The station itself is full of carcasses, a lot of body-/carcass-snatching. Over there it including the rotting head of a camel, facing the a lot of body-/carcass-snatching. Over there it including the rotting head of a camel, facing the is only natural to nurture artists such as Damien camera as it fills up with airy whipped cream, in is only natural to nurture artists such as Damien camera as it fills up with airy whipped cream, in Hirst or the Chapman brothers, who repeatedly front of the astonished birds. The barbarisation 
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63 this killing field. It is the sprayed whipped cream that seems to continue the Old Testament while this killing field. It is the sprayed whipped cream that seems to continue the Old Testament while trickling into the rotting meat that counts as a making ironic use of its format: the book is printed trickling into the rotting meat that counts as a making ironic use of its format: the book is printed deviation, an estrangement, an unacceptable, un- in Biblical script and uses Biblical language to tell deviation, an estrangement, an unacceptable, un- in Biblical script and uses Biblical language to tell civilised, vulgar, nauseating act. the history of the days in which the cursed earth civilised, vulgar, nauseating act. the history of the days in which the cursed earth was ruled by a new species of cruel creatures, a was ruled by a new species of cruel creatures, a The artist Gilead Ratman, long before he was hybrid of humans and dogs, scavengers. The artist Gilead Ratman, long before he was hybrid of humans and dogs, scavengers. awarded a grant to go and complete his studies at awarded a grant to go and complete his studies at Columbia, and certainly before he and his camera Etymologically speaking, the term neo-barbarism Columbia, and certainly before he and his camera Etymologically speaking, the term neo-barbarism started following a group of Americans who derives from the Greek word barbarus. In Ancient started following a group of Americans who derives from the Greek word barbarus. In Ancient believe in the redemptive powers of drowning Greece the barbarus were those who did not believe in the redemptive powers of drowning Greece the barbarus were those who did not themselves from head to toe in scary swamps (this speak Greek and whose language sounded to the themselves from head to toe in scary swamps (this speak Greek and whose language sounded to the is not a metaphor), had also honed a theatrical, founders of the cradle of Western civilisation as no is not a metaphor), had also honed a theatrical, founders of the cradle of Western civilisation as no surrealist, anxious-comic channel of expression, more than a babble, blah blah. The barbarians were surrealist, anxious-comic channel of expression, more than a babble, blah blah. The barbarians were uncommon in Israeli art. In this exhibition he therefore the foreigners, and the identification of uncommon in Israeli art. In this exhibition he therefore the foreigners, and the identification of shows a video made as early as 2002. The film their language as no-language was merely a ruse shows a video made as early as 2002. The film their language as no-language was merely a ruse is so repulsive that no one can watch it straight used to define Greek identity. Thus the distinction is so repulsive that no one can watch it straight used to define Greek identity. Thus the distinction through. “Let My People Go” is a kind of social between Greek and non-Greek was linguistic, and through. “Let My People Go” is a kind of social between Greek and non-Greek was linguistic, and experiment, in the course of which the artist and according to Greek logic – those who did not experiment, in the course of which the artist and according to Greek logic – those who did not his friends enter a flat, sit down and start drinking speak Greek could not think, and therefore could his friends enter a flat, sit down and start drinking speak Greek could not think, and therefore could alcohol. The experiment ends with an urgent not take part in political life. Aristotle claimed that alcohol. The experiment ends with an urgent not take part in political life. Aristotle claimed that dash to the bathroom, a ceremonial bending over Man is a political animal, and gave the barbarians dash to the bathroom, a ceremonial bending over Man is a political animal, and gave the barbarians the toilet seat, and each drunkard’s unique style as an example for creatures who are outside the toilet seat, and each drunkard’s unique style as an example for creatures who are outside of projectile vomiting; the viewers are not spared human nature. of projectile vomiting; the viewers are not spared human nature. visible changes in the texture and hues of the visible changes in the texture and hues of the vomit. In the background, with no less nauseating Thus the barbarian was and still is a person vomit. In the background, with no less nauseating Thus the barbarian was and still is a person pathos, we hear the patriotic voice of a singer representing the opposition to civilisation. The pathos, we hear the patriotic voice of a singer representing the opposition to civilisation. The from the early 1970s performing her version of barbarian stands outside culture, the laws of the from the early 1970s performing her version of barbarian stands outside culture, the laws of the the popular song “Let My People Go”. This song place, the laws of the time and the spirit of the the popular song “Let My People Go”. This song place, the laws of the time and the spirit of the has had a rich history encouraging movements of time, he acts impulsively, with no agenda or has had a rich history encouraging movements of time, he acts impulsively, with no agenda or liberation from slavery and oppression in America. ideology and therefore is seen as the ultimate liberation from slavery and oppression in America. ideology and therefore is seen as the ultimate In Russia it was popular in the days of the Jewish enemy of social order as such. Being Other, he In Russia it was popular in the days of the Jewish enemy of social order as such. Being Other, he prisoners of Zion, who were jailed just because is perceived as irrational, unpredictable, faceless, prisoners of Zion, who were jailed just because is perceived as irrational, unpredictable, faceless, of their wish to identify with or join the State of and therefore – dangerous. The barbarian is the of their wish to identify with or join the State of and therefore – dangerous. The barbarian is the the Jews. Ratman only managed to exhibit this one who threatens to burst out of nowhere and the Jews. Ratman only managed to exhibit this one who threatens to burst out of nowhere and work for the first time two years ago, and only destroy the cultural fabric. work for the first time two years ago, and only destroy the cultural fabric. in the small gallery space of one of the local art in the small gallery space of one of the local art school. In a new video installation, also shown in The 20th century is seen as a century of barbarism: school. In a new video installation, also shown in The 20th century is seen as a century of barbarism: this exhibition, Ratman systematically fragments starting with the First World War, which coincided this exhibition, Ratman systematically fragments starting with the First World War, which coincided every moment that pretends to show the viewers with the erosion of the Enlightenment project every moment that pretends to show the viewers with the erosion of the Enlightenment project even the merest scrape of a plot. and Humanist ideas and with what is known in even the merest scrape of a plot. and Humanist ideas and with what is known in culture as “the metaphysical crisis” (which resulted culture as “the metaphysical crisis” (which resulted In 2002, the same year Ratman made “Let My from the disappointment with secularism as a new In 2002, the same year Ratman made “Let My from the disappointment with secularism as a new People Go”, Lior Waterman made his “Blood religion, and the lack of understanding that as with People Go”, Lior Waterman made his “Blood religion, and the lack of understanding that as with Sausage”, a video in which a bloated blood sausage every religion, secularity also has a daily practice Sausage”, a video in which a bloated blood sausage every religion, secularity also has a daily practice explodes in the viewers’ faces. In an adjacent that needs to be maintained). explodes in the viewers’ faces. In an adjacent that needs to be maintained). room viewers could recover in front of another room viewers could recover in front of another of Waterman’s video works, in which a school The only attempt in the history of art to refer to of Waterman’s video works, in which a school The only attempt in the history of art to refer to janitor stands in front of a barbeque holding a the concept of barbarism took place during the janitor stands in front of a barbeque holding a the concept of barbarism took place during the flame-thrower. He is ordered to stand by the grill First World War. There was no more “barbaric” flame-thrower. He is ordered to stand by the grill First World War. There was no more “barbaric” and turn over charred hands whose contorting trend or movement than Dada. Think of “Dada”, and turn over charred hands whose contorting trend or movement than Dada. Think of “Dada”, flesh recalls the days of the terrorist attacks in the not even the movement’s activities, just its name. flesh recalls the days of the terrorist attacks in the not even the movement’s activities, just its name. Second Intifada. What is suggested by the choice of a group of Second Intifada. What is suggested by the choice of a group of educated, multilingual people to give themselves educated, multilingual people to give themselves These works may be difficult to watch or a sonic, pre-linguistic, primeval name? It is a wish These works may be difficult to watch or a sonic, pre-linguistic, primeval name? 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62 שמאל: Tzara declared that “morality is an injection of body, refusing to digest foreign matter, obliged to אתי ויזלטיר 4 קדושת האסלה chocolate into the veins of all men.” Sweet and throw it up in order to put its own functioning deadly. Dada chose defiantly “anti-artistic” modes in order. Although this act appears repulsive and 2010 וידאו בחסות איטל חרס, אבי דך, of operation as a reaction to the fact that 50 million arouses aesthetic reservations, no one would claim מעצב פנים people were sacrificing their lives on the altar of that the vomiting itself is violent or offensive or the barbarity that grew from European cultural that it is in danger of causing injustice to the other. :Left centres. All this happened before the genocide of Vomiting is actually linked with a moment of great Eti Wieseltier the Second World War. As we know, just over half vulnerability. Sometimes the act of vomiting- Reliques 2010 a century after that horror art started to grope condemning formulates itself (in the words of the Video for the proper way to react, and even then it was poet Byron) as a combination of anger and rhyme, Courtesy of Ital Heres, Avi under a constant critical assault. For example in that is – rage and violent contents that are poured Dach, Interior Design the exhibition “Live and Die like Eva Braun” into stocks or shackles (or what is called “style”) shown by Roee Rosen at the Israeli Museum in which we impose on the work in order to control Jerusalem, in which he prompted the viewers to the form and the content. “betray” the discourse of the survivors and enter the head of Hitler’s lover. The late Tommy Lapid The barbaristic virus fills the holes in the net cried out on television, and as a member of the and corrodes language. In quite a few works in government even threatened to stop governmental this exhibition, words express no more than a support for the museum. murmur. The directionless virality has no marked borders, hovering among all the worlds like a We are left with Dada as an exemplary case in terrifying shadow, devoid of ideology. The Israelis, which a group of artists around the world (not used to repressing the past and shaking off lessons, only in centres such as Zurich, Berlin and Paris) suffer from the repression of the now and its felt sweeping contempt towards all that was done automatic ejection from the living memory, from in the name of culture and sought to reflect a the consciousness of what is present and what cacophonous experience of complete distrust in is becoming. It is a constant coming to being everything that culture represents: from language of a special disorder connected to daily events. to law, reason, structure or institution. Dada artists It is a kind of frustrating neurosis that does not and poets truly believed that in the face of this react to any evil spirit, apartheid, poverty, hunger Great War it was impossible to write poetry, or oppression. The weak are weakened and get impossible to paint a picture, impossible to stage weaker. The insensitivity has become a kind of scar a performance, impossible to operate in existing whose scab was formed years ago. It seems that frameworks and formats, because these – culture’s even our fingerprint has changed so it is unable to rightful heirs – had been proved responsible for turn us over to any border control mechanism (see the horror and were infected with it. During Gal Weinstein’s work in this exhibition, in which Auschwitz and after Auschwitz people actually he performs the metaphoric act of burning his continued to write poems. fingerprint). The brutality-producing mechanism has entered an inertial phase: everything flows and As for the title Neo-Barbarism – it is an ironic title. coagulates at the same time. In fact, the politically correct postmodern person cannot point at someone else and label them It seems that in Israel too, times are ripe for making “barbaric” without being themselves suspected of art created out of rubbing your head against the barbarism. Still, this name keeps coming to mind wall, out of situations of constraint, helplessness in front of art works that point to a situation of and the disagreement of a despairing minority. It cultural-political monochromatic paralysis (no seems that the time has come for an aesthetic of one thinks any longer that there is a difference escape (which is totally different from aesthetics of between right and centre and left – all the parties escapism); that this is the time to form an utterance in Israel have offset the differences between with the least meaning possible, in a language in them and none of them really has an agenda or which the content and the form deterritorialise a future plan). We shall insist on neo barbarism each other; a language of artificial and alienated as an idiomatic phrase rather than a formal term. theatrical rituals and empty physical gestures; a As already mentioned, there are no barbarians language that pretends to be standard but whose but ourselves (even if around the world there are components do not produce a “statement” in the wars between civilisations that define each other traditional sense of the critique of pure reason. as barbaric). The works shown in this exhibition suggest that there is no choice but to demonstrate This is the time for passive-aggressive art, the art an act of betrayal, sometimes physiological, in of “stepping on the gas in neutral”. The exhibition order to get rid of materials that our own bodies of video installations entitled Neo-Barbarism cannot live with. Vomiting your guts out is not does not wish to suggest a definitive meaning a pleasant act. Throwing up emerges as a non- for the phrase chosen in an intuitive flash to refer voluntary but indispensable reflex of the rebelling to singular works of art created in Israel in the

60 last decade. Most of the works shown produce tigers in environments of despotism. Their works kinds of spiral, Deleuzian “lines of escape”, expose a collection of ironic ruses, demonstrating within given, suffocating media and forms, more than anything the idea that under every and against them. They yield to the definition mechanism of dominance that loses its balance, a “minor literature” suggested by the French new mechanism of dominance is produced, which philosophers Deleuze and Guattari in 1975. They they (and us) are forever an integral part of. defined “minor literature” as the literature of a writer who belongs to a minority yet writes in The barbaric, like a dark object of desire, lurks the dominant, major language. The emblematic within us. The terrorist imagination also lies in wait example with which they demonstrate the term in each and every one of us. Thus, according to the is the Jewish Kafka, whose parents spoke Yiddish apocalyptic French philosopher Jean Baudrillard: and then Czech, whereas he chose to write in “An allergy to all definitive order, to all definitive the occupying language – German. However, power is happily universal... No need for a death according to Deleuze and Guattari, the German wish or desire for self-destruction, not even for used by Kafka is a hybrid instrument made of a perverse effects. It is very logically, and inexorably, complex combination between the consciousness that the rise to power of power exacerbates a will of the I and the consciousness of the collective to destroy it. And power is complicit with its with which Kafka was associated; minor language own destruction… It has been said: ‘God cannot is a collective system of expression of a member declare war on Itself’. Well, It can. The West, in its of a minority who speaks the dominant language, God-like position (of divine power, and absolute which in any case permeates the political field moral legitimacy) becomes suicidal, and declares which has already “contaminated every utterance war on itself.”7 Substitute “Israel” for “The West”. with it”.5 The minor writer performs, in the major language, sober moves and estrangements The Works that can be seen as a political act, albeit devoid of a declared ideology. The minor writer does not seek The viewing public at the exhibition Neo- freedom and emancipation, as is perhaps expected Barbarism will be greeted with two outstretched of artists as such, “only a way out—to the right or arms, amputated from the shoulders. Each arm is left or anywhere at all. I made no other demands, wearing the sleeve of a black leather jacket and is even if the way out should be only an illusion. The itself steel-cast and gold-plated. Each hand holds a demand was small; the disappointment would not paper cup for begging with the simple inscription be any greater—to move on further, to move on “for my art”. This is the polished sculpture made further! Only not to stand still with arms raised, by the artist-designer Eitan Bartal. pressed against a crate wall.”6 Inside, in the dimly-lit exhibition space, The neo-barbaristic artists “exploit” major formats Uri Katzenstein will perform a new modest and manipulate them as if their works were a new performance called “Weight”, which he chooses animal species that feeds on the hosts’ materials, to define as a reactive experiment. In fact it is devours them, digests them and produces energy an electric shock treatment. No one will faint from them. The works of these artists/pirates, this time. The experiment has been medically 
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They they (and us) are forever an integral part of. audience to approach him. A dog sits by his side. an endless loop, like an arabesque. It is another defined “minor literature” as the literature of a Behind him there is a simple video screening of his incarnation of the story of the king who executed writer who belongs to a minority yet writes in The barbaric, like a dark object of desire, lurks sleeping son. Katzenstein himself exudes serenity, his wife after discovering she had been unfaithful the dominant, major language. The emblematic within us. The terrorist imagination also lies in wait generosity and pleasantness. Whoever comes to him, and started marrying a new virgin each example with which they demonstrate the term in each and every one of us. Thus, according to the up to him gets a gentle handshake or a startling day, only to execute her the next morning. Until is the Jewish Kafka, whose parents spoke Yiddish apocalyptic French philosopher Jean Baudrillard: stroke, during which the current is conveyed, and the canny Shahrazad, the daughter of the vizier in and then Czech, whereas he chose to write in “An allergy to all definitive order, to all definitive a whisper in the ear generously promising that charge of supplying the virgins, decides to marry the occupying language – German. However, power is happily universal... No need for a death “Next time I’ll teach you something new”. The the king and change the decree, or at least delay according to Deleuze and Guattari, the German wish or desire for self-destruction, not even for ritual, Joseph Beuysian in spirit, ends with rough it, by using her charms as a storyteller and with an used by Kafka is a hybrid instrument made of a perverse effects. It is very logically, and inexorably, singing accompanied by a ukulele. Katzenstein endless string of historical tales, comedies, tragedies, complex combination between the consciousness that the rise to power of power exacerbates a will performs a little song written by Ohad Fishof. The poems, erotic stories and fables – all lacking a of the I and the consciousness of the collective to destroy it. And power is complicit with its performance – plus the appearance, the curls, the moral or a lesson and mostly meaningless. The with which Kafka was associated; minor language own destruction… It has been said: ‘God cannot glasses and the dog – is so minor, human, steeped fascinated king is obliged to delay the execution is a collective system of expression of a member declare war on Itself’. Well, It can. The West, in its with desire and sadness. Katzenstein’s cracked until he has heard the end of the story, which of a minority who speaks the dominant language, God-like position (of divine power, and absolute voice, as if soaked with alcohol, brings to mind never comes. Just like Shahrazad, who succeeds which in any case permeates the political field moral legitimacy) becomes suicidal, and declares the possibility that the soul of Theodorakis or in deferring her death to an unknown time by which has already “contaminated every utterance war on itself.”7 Substitute “Israel” for “The West”. Hadgidakis has reincarnated in his body. means of a rhetorical trick that has no beginning with it”.5 The minor writer performs, in the and no end (that cures the king of the wound of major language, sober moves and estrangements The Works “To Be Continued” (2009), Sharif Waked’s video betrayal and allays his pain and his deadly anger), that can be seen as a political act, albeit devoid of a installation, brings to the discussion a fantasy so does Waked’s suicide bomber. declared ideology. The minor writer does not seek The viewing public at the exhibition Neo- about a desperate use of the ultimate weapon Waked’s choice of the text from “One Thousand freedom and emancipation, as is perhaps expected Barbarism will be greeted with two outstretched – “Let me die with the Philistines”. The work and One Nights” turns out to be an enchanting of artists as such, “only a way out—to the right or arms, amputated from the shoulders. Each arm is ironises the familiar format recorded by a suicide but endless choice. As such his choice joins the left or anywhere at all. I made no other demands, wearing the sleeve of a black leather jacket and is bomber on the eve of a mission. It is an encoded central theme of the exhibition Neo-Barbarism, even if the way out should be only an illusion. The itself steel-cast and gold-plated. Each hand holds a replica transmitted in video. In a performance that which is concerned with frustrating the viewers’ demand was small; the disappointment would not paper cup for begging with the simple inscription has already become a ritual and a convention, the urge for unequivocal meaning and with emptying be any greater—to move on further, to move on “for my art”. This is the polished sculpture made terrorist reads his last statement in front of the the conventions of the medium of their core further! Only not to stand still with arms raised, by the artist-designer Eitan Bartal. camera before performing the act that will give power and content. Waked, however, allows the pressed against a crate wall.”6 his death the status of a martyr’s death. After dying viewers to give themselves up to the voice of the Inside, in the dimly-lit exhibition space, amongst his victims and the enemies of his people, storyteller, and this, after all, must have been the The neo-barbaristic artists “exploit” major formats Uri Katzenstein will perform a new modest the release of the video for transmission functions bewitching element in Shahrazad’s stories. and manipulate them as if their works were a new performance called “Weight”, which he chooses as a symbol of resistance and heroism among the The clever video piece “To Be Continued” emerges animal species that feeds on the hosts’ materials, to define as a reactive experiment. 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58 57 56 ,”and diverting their energies to alternative routes. audience that “today I went to see my doctor בעמוד הבא: שרון בלבן In their list of strategies that transform the immediately abandoning the personal and opening שלאגפיקס, פרט 2010 hegemonic or dominant culture, Shohat and Stam a Pandora’s box that will not be shut until the end 3 הקרנות וידאו include the concept “Brazilian Anthropophagy”, a of the performance. She moves on to a series of 3:54 דקות “cultural cannibalism” that advocates the devouring jokes about Jewish, Italian, Swedish and even Arab :Previous Page and eclectic swallowing of a variety of traditions, doctors. “An Arab doctor, what’s wrong with that, Sharon Balaban Schlagfix, Detail including Eurocentric traditions, in order to there are Arab doctors too… What’s up with you, 2010 produce a metabolic synthesis: absorbing different you don’t like sex?” The humour mechanism 3 video projections 3:54 min materials from the environment, processing them, gradually breaks down, seemingly unable to come producing energy from them and spewing out up with any reasons to laugh. The jokes have no the waste. The Brazilian movement that espoused punch lines and include bad news. They turn out anthropophagy called for art to devour European to be stressful, monstrous, horrifying, devoid of techniques in order to further the struggle against clear political agenda or recognisable ideological European supremacy (and the West’s dominance) orientation. These jokes, more than anything, and convert it to an alternative. Anthropophagy betray the natural mechanism of humour and the (cannibalism) appropriates the existing discourse, heroic principle attributed to it by Freud (Freud taking on the power of the dominant discourse believed that humour has the ability to unravel and rearranging itself against it. horror and deep anxiety). There are of course different types of stratagems However the work of art itself turns out to be of this kind, for instance the concept of directed against the media and the television “excorporation”, which refers to the “robbing” formats which we all live, formats that offer a of corporations’ symbols and advertisement reversal of the form and the content. It happens in labels in order to expropriate their control of the reality shows and in weekend supplement features, commodity market, or the “garbage aesthetic” and it happens in satirical shows as well. The TV that can be seen in the 2009 film “Waste Land”, world is occupied more and more intensively with documenting the works of the Brazilian artist emptying its shows of any content. In “Hilarious”, Vik Muniz, or in the short Brazilian film “Isle of the television format, as an entertainment Flowers” by Jorge Furtado from 1989, tracking machine, becomes the subject of the piece. The the path of a tomato from the garden to the work’s troublesome, incomprehensible, absurd dump. Other concepts are the “hunger aesthetic”; content offers a reflection of the format, which, “nomadic aesthetic”; “exile aesthetic”; and “the like other formats dedicated to entertainment aesthetic of the minority” known as “minor shows and otherwise, rolls down its trousers to literature” in Deleuze and Guattari’s essay. All these create a sensation, lest the spectators leave. are now joined by what the writers of these pages Rosen’s de-sublimitive works reach aesthetic- call “the aesthetic of neo-barbarism”, an aesthetic professional-virtuoso-sublime heights, only to fall that turns barbarism against itself. from them and drown deep in the filth, with no escape. The mechanism of betrayal operates again In Roee Rosen’s “Hilarious”, a video shot in a and again, and in more layers: if it seems to the television studio, we can see the neo-barbaric viewers that Rosy Rosen acts as an impersonal, “harassment” of the familiar format of stand-up subject-less machine, there comes a moment in comedy and of the stratagem of humour itself, which she is transformed and becomes a beautiful with its liberating force in the face of existential pregnant Swede who is about to die in the attack dread. If standard stand-up comedy sometimes has on New York’s Twin Towers. When she is asked the status of sharp satire that succeeds in shaking by a goldfish what is her final wish, the camera up the viewers and pointing to despicable blind shows a close-up of her sweaty face. And with no spots in their social, political and mental lives, technical manipulation, just by using her acting then the video work “Hilarious” has a strange skills, she suddenly turns into a beautiful, stunning, status: it is fundamentally frayed, and functions as a glamorous and tragic Swede. “I am about to die”, mechanism whose victims are all of us, including she answers the goldfish with an expression of the artist. fathomless sorrow mixed with defiance, “and In this fictional television show, the gifted I don’t want anything”. For a moment, against actress Hani Furstenberg plays Rosy Rosen, the viewers’ will, their identification mechanism a provocative comedian with obscene bodily is triggered, immediately broken by the actress’ gestures, who operate as an automatic “stand-up automatic return to her role as a laughter machine machine”, as a spectacular and seemingly subject- and to her unfunny jokes and her repertoire of less implementation tool. She performs boldly in obscene gestures. The same process unfolds at the front of an audience who have come to laugh and end of the programme; after thanking the audience find themselves sweating with embarrassment, and bowing, with the music and the applause, Rosy ambivalence and an effort to understand what the Rosen mutters with a huge smile: “Thank you, hell is going on. Rosy Rosen starts with a very thank you, I have cancer”. The viewers are shaken short personal confession in which she tells the again: Is there or isn’t there a human subject here?

55 and diverting their energies to alternative routes. audience that “today I went to see my doctor”, And if she has cancer, does it permit her to say the becomes apparent that the main subject of the In their list of strategies that transform the immediately abandoning the personal and opening monstrous things she has said? survey may be to yield more and more pretty hegemonic or dominant culture, Shohat and Stam a Pandora’s box that will not be shut until the end The applause are accompanied by a cheerful drawings (of the kind that Maya Zack excels in). include the concept “Brazilian Anthropophagy”, a of the performance. She moves on to a series of version of the song “The Right to Live in Peace”, All the purposeful activity in the control room “cultural cannibalism” that advocates the devouring jokes about Jewish, Italian, Swedish and even Arab also marked by betrayal. It is a completely un- occurs under growing pressure, as the draftswoman and eclectic swallowing of a variety of traditions, doctors. “An Arab doctor, what’s wrong with that, cheerful South American leftist song, a classic tries to get a grip on things. The activity in the including Eurocentric traditions, in order to there are Arab doctors too… What’s up with you, written by the freedom fighter Victor Jara, who training hall is not entirely clear either. And then, produce a metabolic synthesis: absorbing different you don’t like sex?” The humour mechanism was executed by Pinochet. The entirely female the trainer injects the dogs with something and materials from the environment, processing them, gradually breaks down, seemingly unable to come band in the studio, incidentally, has been infiltrated something is broken. The well-oiled machine producing energy from them and spewing out up with any reasons to laugh. The jokes have no by two artists: Ruti Sela, blowing a trumpet with stops and the chaos begins. The dogs deviate from the waste. The Brazilian movement that espoused punch lines and include bad news. They turn out blasts that sound like an especially rude joke, and their automatic functionality and the demon of anthropophagy called for art to devour European to be stressful, monstrous, horrifying, devoid of Doron Rabina, playing an organ that sits in his the wild primeval animal seems to burst out, techniques in order to further the struggle against clear political agenda or recognisable ideological lap like a pet dog, in perfect drag (in all of Roee attacking the trainer/torturer and rendering the European supremacy (and the West’s dominance) orientation. These jokes, more than anything, Rosen’s works, gender reversals are a fundamental experiment worthless. The drama as seen from the and convert it to an alternative. Anthropophagy betray the natural mechanism of humour and the theme); a betrayal of himself, of his own gender? control room looks like a chaotic, jumbled and (cannibalism) appropriates the existing discourse, heroic principle attributed to it by Freud (Freud reckless event in which the dogs and the trainer taking on the power of the dominant discourse believed that humour has the ability to unravel Maya Zack’s “Black and White Rule” is an get hopelessly entangled. In the end they all die, and rearranging itself against it. horror and deep anxiety). episodic film echoing a psychological drama about except the scientist-draftswoman. She goes out to There are of course different types of stratagems However the work of art itself turns out to be which the viewers have no available knowledge. the training hall and examines the results of the of this kind, for instance the concept of directed against the media and the television There is an emphasis on the meticulous and event that got out of hand. It seems that she is “excorporation”, which refers to the “robbing” formats which we all live, formats that offer a expressive design of the space, with numerous incapable of examining what she sees unless it is of corporations’ symbols and advertisement reversal of the form and the content. It happens in period instruments creating a super-rational 1920s through one of the “rational” instruments at her labels in order to expropriate their control of the reality shows and in weekend supplement features, environment. The highly professional atmosphere disposal. She looks at the unfocused scene of the commodity market, or the “garbage aesthetic” and it happens in satirical shows as well. The TV follows an agenda that revolves around a couple of event through a large glass frame with a grid. As it that can be seen in the 2009 film “Waste Land”, world is occupied more and more intensively with horribly groomed dogs. From the outset, it is clear comes into focus, the picture brings together the documenting the works of the Brazilian artist emptying its shows of any content. In “Hilarious”, that the measured and mechanical functioning net of the grid and the rhizomatic event, in which Vik Muniz, or in the short Brazilian film “Isle of the television format, as an entertainment of the anonymous characters and of the well- wires coil inseparably around the dogs and the Flowers” by Jorge Furtado from 1989, tracking machine, becomes the subject of the piece. The trained dogs – directed to walk on their hind legs trainer until they become one multi-limbed unit. the path of a tomato from the garden to the work’s troublesome, incomprehensible, absurd with their heads upright in a sickeningly elegant This is a crucial and constitutive moment, in which dump. Other concepts are the “hunger aesthetic”; content offers a reflection of the format, which, prance – is about to be broken or interrupted. the artist confronts the symbol of progressive, “nomadic aesthetic”; “exile aesthetic”; and “the like other formats dedicated to entertainment Everything invites disruption. It is only a matter of enlightened, utopian, rational modernism with aesthetic of the minority” known as “minor shows and otherwise, rolls down its trousers to time before the routine machine, which sustains the ultimate symbol of postmodernism – the literature” in Deleuze and Guattari’s essay. All these create a sensation, lest the spectators leave. itself, goes haywire and attacks itself. Deleuzian Rhizome (Rhizome: a term taken are now joined by what the writers of these pages Rosen’s de-sublimitive works reach aesthetic- The film moves between two adjacent spaces. In one from the field of botany and referring to types call “the aesthetic of neo-barbarism”, an aesthetic professional-virtuoso-sublime heights, only to fall of the spaces there are a black and white tiled floor, of roots that expand horizontally, making it that turns barbarism against itself. from them and drown deep in the filth, with no training facilities and podiums for presentation and impossible to follow the direction or structure of escape. The mechanism of betrayal operates again experimentation, and a meticulously dressed dog their expansion: roots of grass, for example) – In Roee Rosen’s “Hilarious”, a video shot in a and again, and in more layers: if it seems to the trainer. He is conducting a series of training games a metaphor for complicated, evasive, dead-end and television studio, we can see the neo-barbaric viewers that Rosy Rosen acts as an impersonal, and measuring the limbs of the two pedigree dogs. irresolvable situations of creation and thought. “harassment” of the familiar format of stand-up subject-less machine, there comes a moment in The dogs’ white fur is neatly designed in pet-lion The film’s plot may point to the rebellion of comedy and of the stratagem of humour itself, which she is transformed and becomes a beautiful style. They demonstrate circus skills and seem the oppressed and the exploited, in this case the with its liberating force in the face of existential pregnant Swede who is about to die in the attack to belong to the species of champions, used to dogs that turn on those who control them, their dread. If standard stand-up comedy sometimes has on New York’s Twin Towers. When she is asked participating in competitions and winning medals. designers, the scientists and all those who made the status of sharp satire that succeeds in shaking by a goldfish what is her final wish, the camera The trainer sometimes deviates from his focused them look like they do today – after thousands up the viewers and pointing to despicable blind shows a close-up of her sweaty face. And with no activity, taking breaks in which he swallows and of years of genetic experiments and crossbreeding spots in their social, political and mental lives, technical manipulation, just by using her acting spews out ping-pong balls or performs a few that generated hundreds of dog breeds. Human then the video work “Hilarious” has a strange skills, she suddenly turns into a beautiful, stunning, quick tap dancing steps of his own. He himself diversity seems limited compared to canine status: it is fundamentally frayed, and functions as a glamorous and tragic Swede. “I am about to die”, goes through a process of “becoming animal” or diversity. In one of the books by the philosopher mechanism whose victims are all of us, including she answers the goldfish with an expression of “becoming a dog machine”. In the second space, Daniel Shabtai Milo, a science-fiction novel called the artist. fathomless sorrow mixed with defiance, “and in the adjacent room, there are piles of documents. “The Carriers of the Brain,”10 it is suggested that In this fictional television show, the gifted I don’t want anything”. For a moment, against Among the data cards, registration booklets, maps, one day the tables will be turned, that is: “Man actress Hani Furstenberg plays Rosy Rosen, the viewers’ will, their identification mechanism diagrams and other bizarre instruments, we see performs on his best friend manipulations that a provocative comedian with obscene bodily is triggered, immediately broken by the actress’ a young neurotic woman, half-scientist half- the Helsinki Accords on human experimentation gestures, who operate as an automatic “stand-up automatic return to her role as a laughter machine draftswoman. The woman, dressed in conservative rightly forbid. But anything that is possible will machine”, as a spectacular and seemingly subject- and to her unfunny jokes and her repertoire of Victorian elegance, concentrates on observing be done one day, this is a great rule in science. less implementation tool. She performs boldly in obscene gestures. The same process unfolds at the and surveying what is taking place in the training Within a few dozen or hundred years, Earth front of an audience who have come to laugh and end of the programme; after thanking the audience and experimentation hall. Seized with productive will be populated by Doberman-, Labrador-, find themselves sweating with embarrassment, and bowing, with the music and the applause, Rosy yet restrained desire, she draws the dogs in Dachshund- and Poodle-like homo sapiens, and ambivalence and an effort to understand what the Rosen mutters with a huge smile: “Thank you, different anatomical postures, crosschecks data, the same will be true for at least all the other four hell is going on. Rosy Rosen starts with a very thank you, I have cancer”. The viewers are shaken compares x-rays, operates a metronome, collects hundred breeds that have been engineered so far. 
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54 53 52 seem to have been stolen from some One Dollar בעמוד הבא: שריף ואכד To Be Continued... Maya Zack’s film, like its name (“Black and Shop according to an uncontrolled craving for 2009 White Rule”), presumes to operate within a their colour: brushes for various uses – yellow; לופ וידאו, 41:33 דקות ;legal framework that presents the viewers with a chocolate-and-nut bars – yellowish-golden wraps ערבית עם כתוביות באנגלית moral dilemma – which is resolved. In the end baskets in different sizes made of simple plastic :Previous Page almost everyone dies, except the character of materials – yellow as well; plastic whistles, spools of Sharif Waked To Be Continued... the researcher who keeps a seemingly-objective string, casts of utensils, dolls and beads – all yellow. 2009 distance from what is happening. Zack reports the The collection’s eclecticism and the devotion to Video Loop, 41:33 Min Arabic with English subtitles events with an irony that denotes a Kafkaesque the colour bring to mind a covetous bird building dead-end; the destruction of an old mechanism a nest in which it hopes to host a mate. Above the becomes in turn a new mechanism, and the packed vitrine stands an old television set, held in scientist/draftswoman/artist is part of the same place by protruding iron hinges, connected in turn tortured perpetuum mobile, “made of office to a monkey-wrench-like tool. The leg of a desk paper” (as in Kafka’s “writing machine”). lamp is stuck in the monitor’s bottom, pointing a vulgar beam of light at the neatly polished crotch Like Kafka, Maya Zack adores machines and of a used wooden figurine of an African fertility instruments. “The machine, to him, is never goddess. The television screens a video which merely technical”, explain the philosophers features the face of the artist himself, connected Raphael Zagury-Orly and Yoram Ron, in their via a kiss to a pigeon chick. The chick seems to essential introduction to the Hebrew translation of be suckling from Arad’s throat; his funnel-like Deleuze and Guattari’s “Kafka – Toward a Minor gaping mouth is providing it with chewed food Literature”. “It is always linked to more complicated but can also, at a stroke, decapitate its tiny head. systems that it is only part of, along with other The endless looping of the film creates the feeling parts, the raw materials and the mechanisms, that these mouths, the artist’s and the animal’s, will but also: the staff, the men and the women, the never be satisfied. powerful and the weak, the executioners and the The totemic lump, with its gangly joints that seem victims.” This machine, according to them, is the to have been soldered together by the artist’s desire, desire that operates like a machine, that endlessly can be seen to allude to a rough mechanism for produces and experiences, that lacks nothing, the production of meaning or belief for anyone that always sustains itself (in contrast to common who needs it. Arad’s totem is also portable – even opinion, based on the psychoanalytic schema, that if its wheels are a bit loose, they still allow it to says that desire is created from a lack and is always wander around from tribe to tribe. It recalls those in deficit). “Kafka’s greatness”, claim Zagury-Orly colourful plastic-cast figures that sometimes stand and Ron following Deleuze and Guattari, “is that in shopping centres: a human-size Indian, for he understands that men and women are part of example, that at the push of a button will open its the machine not only when they are at work, mouth and push out a note forecasting the user’s when for example they are in contact with the future. technical machine at the factory. The fact of their Arad’s totem is a simulacra of a desire machine that being an inseparable part of the machine is most feeds and gets fed at the same time. The constant emphasised when they are not working: in their constitution of desire – for yellow knickknacks, extra-curricular activities, in their resting times, for suckling a pigeon chick, for the emission and their loves, their protests, their angers.”11 adsorption of heat, pulse and life hanging by a “In fact the irony exposes the impossibility thread – stitches everything together without of offering real change, and the necessity of lacking anything. It is also a kind of intensive confronting this impossibility, before clinging to “bachelor machine”,14 a smug and satisfied any alternative, innovation or transformation. It collective unit, functioning as a metonymy for a shows how every change is ultimately deceptive, familial living machine: it flaunts the appearance how it paves the way for new bureaucracies.”12 of a dumb, muscleman bouncer, with the fertility goddess above it meant to ensure the continuity of “Totem”, Boaz Arad’s video installation, is a the family unit. The absurdity of the whole object fetishistic assemblage that grows out of the earth radiates subversion and betrayal of traditional like a pagan body, developing an assortment family values and their seemingly self-evident of arbitrarily combined organs and materials. place in the social order. This impressive golem-totem is terrorising and humorous, potent and impotent all at the same Gal Weinstein shows a video piece that points to 
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51 seem to have been stolen from some One Dollar Weinstein dipped his finger in ink and made a gaping mouth peeps a belly stretched to the point Maya Zack’s film, like its name (“Black and Shop according to an uncontrolled craving for print of it on a piece of paper, then the print was of bursting. We witness the artist becoming a White Rule”), presumes to operate within a their colour: brushes for various uses – yellow; mapped and enlarged, and then the fingerprint’s kind of hybrid feeding machine, spraying durable legal framework that presents the viewers with a chocolate-and-nut bars – yellowish-golden wraps; lines were recreated with cotton wool fibres glued whipped cream from a German made Schlagfix moral dilemma – which is resolved. In the end baskets in different sizes made of simple plastic onto the paper with great gentleness. These lines container. The whipped cream pours out of the almost everyone dies, except the character of materials – yellow as well; plastic whistles, spools of were set fire to in a controlled manner, the flames mouth of the helmet/belly, collecting in the pile the researcher who keeps a seemingly-objective string, casts of utensils, dolls and beads – all yellow. sketching their outline. The result is like “action of carcasses. The vultures, whose feeding site was distance from what is happening. Zack reports the The collection’s eclecticism and the devotion to drawing” with fire, a kind of automatic drawing- organised for the sake of ecological balance, are events with an irony that denotes a Kafkaesque the colour bring to mind a covetous bird building writing. Every fingerprint flattens a person into seduced, by an enigmatic and bizarre act, to gorge dead-end; the destruction of an old mechanism a nest in which it hopes to host a mate. Above the a two-dimensional graphic sign, reducing their on whipped cream straight from the head of a dead becomes in turn a new mechanism, and the packed vitrine stands an old television set, held in identity to an identification mark that reveals camel, or, alternately, straight from the pregnant scientist/draftswoman/artist is part of the same place by protruding iron hinges, connected in turn nothing about their personality. In this case, the belly that proudly taunts them. The vultures tortured perpetuum mobile, “made of office to a monkey-wrench-like tool. The leg of a desk two-dimensional is treated with material, with approach Balaban with interest and a large group paper” (as in Kafka’s “writing machine”). lamp is stuck in the monitor’s bottom, pointing a a process, with movement, transforming the voraciously jumps at the helmeted, swollen belly. vulgar beam of light at the neatly polished crotch two-dimensional and returning it to the three- Whipped cream has earned special status as a comic Like Kafka, Maya Zack adores machines and of a used wooden figurine of an African fertility dimensional as a relief, an inscription in fire, before hero in slapstick movies, and the act of throwing instruments. “The machine, to him, is never goddess. The television screens a video which the video photograph empties the image again. it at the surprised faces of people in authority has merely technical”, explain the philosophers features the face of the artist himself, connected The same goes for the act of scorching: it exposes long become a symbol of protest and humiliation Raphael Zagury-Orly and Yoram Ron, in their via a kiss to a pigeon chick. The chick seems to the fingerprint, illuminates it and consumes customary at political and economic conventions. essential introduction to the Hebrew translation of be suckling from Arad’s throat; his funnel-like it, emphasising its topography and denying it, Still, what is a pregnant woman doing in a feeding Deleuze and Guattari’s “Kafka – Toward a Minor gaping mouth is providing it with chewed food hiding it and inscribing it. The act of burning site for vultures? What does whipped cream have Literature”. “It is always linked to more complicated but can also, at a stroke, decapitate its tiny head. the fingerprint leaves behind an alternative mark, to do with the head of a dead camel? What does a systems that it is only part of, along with other The endless looping of the film creates the feeling thus pointing to the absurdity of the act, and to its pregnant belly have to do with a protective helmet parts, the raw materials and the mechanisms, that these mouths, the artist’s and the animal’s, will playfulness. The insistent gap between the personal soldered to the belly, to the artist’s body, like a big but also: the staff, the men and the women, the never be satisfied. identification mark and the individual’s actual funnel of a mouth that seems ready to throw out powerful and the weak, the executioners and the The totemic lump, with its gangly joints that seem identity refuses to disappear. Nevertheless, the the baby with the bath water and sacrifice it? The victims.” This machine, according to them, is the to have been soldered together by the artist’s desire, playful act itself makes us think about sabotaging feeling is of sabotage, of intentionally damaging desire that operates like a machine, that endlessly can be seen to allude to a rough mechanism for biometric surveillance methods; about the and hurting the body of the pregnant subject, as produces and experiences, that lacks nothing, the production of meaning or belief for anyone temptation that criminals or wanted people must a way of expressing protest and basic resistance, that always sustains itself (in contrast to common who needs it. Arad’s totem is also portable – even often feel, and realise, to erase the possibility of resistance for its own sake. opinion, based on the psychoanalytic schema, that if its wheels are a bit loose, they still allow it to identification and exposure from their treacherous The event is split into three screens, as if the says that desire is created from a lack and is always wander around from tribe to tribe. It recalls those body organ, to sabotage the surveillance regime division into three can produce some logic and in deficit). “Kafka’s greatness”, claim Zagury-Orly colourful plastic-cast figures that sometimes stand and deceive the “big brother”. help the viewers digest the gnawing and alienating and Ron following Deleuze and Guattari, “is that in shopping centres: a human-size Indian, for bizarre performance. The work seems to court a he understands that men and women are part of example, that at the push of a button will open its Up till now, Sharon Balaban has not been on the status of incomprehensibility – that lacks nothing. the machine not only when they are at work, mouth and push out a note forecasting the user’s list of the usual suspects of neo-barbarism taking Incomprehensibility that deviates from traditional when for example they are in contact with the future. part in this exhibition. In the last decade she has thinking – which seeks to give meaning to what technical machine at the factory. The fact of their Arad’s totem is a simulacra of a desire machine that been working on an impressive crop of “home cannot be understood and cannot be formulated. being an inseparable part of the machine is most feeds and gets fed at the same time. The constant movies” that tend not to go over one minute The triple-screen video piece Schlagfix behaves emphasised when they are not working: in their constitution of desire – for yellow knickknacks, in length and are screened in endless loops. The like an assemblage whose components are put extra-curricular activities, in their resting times, for suckling a pigeon chick, for the emission and films are produced with simple means and a together without comprising an utterance, without their loves, their protests, their angers.”11 adsorption of heat, pulse and life hanging by a minimalist language, but enjoy surrealist contents. shedding light on each other and without carrying “In fact the irony exposes the impossibility thread – stitches everything together without Their stars are simple objects, as well as the artist’s the promise of producing unified meaning – of offering real change, and the necessity of lacking anything. It is also a kind of intensive bodily organs, undergoing surprising and amusing therefore it can be referred to as a rhizome. confronting this impossibility, before clinging to “bachelor machine”,14 a smug and satisfied defamiliarisations and very gently bringing up The vulture’s guzzling feast emerges as a perfectly any alternative, innovation or transformation. It collective unit, functioning as a metonymy for a subjects such as sex, gender, monstrous hybrids cultural act, confronted by a mute and silent shows how every change is ultimately deceptive, familial living machine: it flaunts the appearance and becoming animal. “barbaric” ritual, that seems to be responding how it paves the way for new bureaucracies.”12 of a dumb, muscleman bouncer, with the fertility For the work shown in the exhibition Neo- to distant drummers, to ungraspable and illusive goddess above it meant to ensure the continuity of Barbarism, the heavily pregnant Balaban music, of the kind heard by Kafka’s dog in “Totem”, Boaz Arad’s video installation, is a the family unit. The absurdity of the whole object unflinchingly arrived with her video camera “Investigations of a Dog” (inspiring it to wonder fetishistic assemblage that grows out of the earth radiates subversion and betrayal of traditional at the vultures’ feeding site. 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50 49 48 a mark of Cain on her forehead, always residing married”; “I can’t live”; “Stop improvising”; “He בעמוד הבא: רותי סלע Nothing to Lose nowhere. doesn’t love me” – sentences said by the different 2010 The work resists summarisation or reduction, nor couples – Between the woman and the child or וידאו, 8 דקות does it develop in a linear fashion. It unfolds with between the son and his mother? Between the man טולוז chaotic, neutral arbitrariness, indifferent to logical and the lover or between the actor and his wife? :Previous Page thinking. Deleuze would have probably suggested Between the director and the actress or between Ruti Sela Nothing to Lose that it is not the problem that Balaban’s film her and her lover? The gestures accompanying 2010 posits that we need to solve, but rather the system the sentences are also emptied out, resonating Video, 8 Min Toulouse that thinks that there is some problem or logical simultaneously onstage and behind the scenes. contradiction here. Disconnecting the voice from the speaking subject, a central tool in Cytter’s work, intensifies Keren Cytter’s video work “No Title Yet” is based the estrangement. In an article in the art magazine on what is defined as “the theatre of repetition”, a Artforum she says that even utopian hopes about theatre that offers a language of dynamic signifiers overcoming the crisis of the authentic have and gestures, that hover in the space of the show themselves become clichés and “readymades”.18 with no phenomenological orientation. Rather Thus she follows a practice of mimicry while than mediating between two characters standing blurring the gap between the real and the staged. on stage, this language functions prior to the Cytter wishes to expose the synthetic nature of words. the recited sentence and the cinematic mechanism Cytter’s film introduces the viewers to a theatrical that drives the characters and confronts them with experience that takes place in a number of parallel the filmed situation. The manner in which she set-ups. On the stage there is a table, some portable uses the practice of mimesis brings to mind Walter clothes hangers, lighting poles and various stage Benjamin’s discussion of the ability to become props. Downstage there is a book cabinet and similar, the mental capacity for assimilation and an unmade bed. The actors play family members mimicry, the ability to identify common patterns having destructive conversations on stage, as well of action and to adopt them. This approach to as behind the scenes, with audience reactions the mimetic ability examines the process rather heard in the background. The viewers, lost among than the final product.19 The mimetic ability thus a number of situations that refuse to be harnessed described questions and destabilises the foundations together into a traditional plot, are momentarily of the link between the sign and the signified, unable to grasp what is happening in front of their between the represented and its representation. eyes. The video work seems to be documenting Cytter actualises the dismantling of the signifiers, the bizarre show, yet it has no concrete beginning the disintegration of the subject and the decline of or end. The work keeps unfolding and moving in a the regime of harmonious identities. In this sense, spiral fashion, between the front of the fourth wall15 her drifting among different identities, her use of and the back of the stage. Cytter’s visual language emptied clichés and her endless repetition grasp is realistic and direct, and she seems to compel the some of the essence of contemporary barbarity. viewers into a “suspension of disbelief” and into Anselm Franke, in an essay on the characteristics devotion. The removal of the fourth wall creates of contemporary theatre and performance entitled estrangement and alienation and highlights the “Afterword on the Theatre of Transgression”, 
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47 a mark of Cain on her forehead, always residing married”; “I can’t live”; “Stop improvising”; “He one after the other. They are staggering drunkenly and forest sounds. The creatures appearing in nowhere. doesn’t love me” – sentences said by the different like cats without moustaches. Each seems to be the collection of scenes, sort of hybrids between The work resists summarisation or reduction, nor couples – Between the woman and the child or preparing to go to bed - washing his face, taking humans and animals, themselves tend to produce does it develop in a linear fashion. It unfolds with between the son and his mother? Between the man off his shoes and his clothes, and so forth. It soon growls and gibberish. chaotic, neutral arbitrariness, indifferent to logical and the lover or between the actor and his wife? becomes clear that none of the characters can hold The motif of repetition features heavily in this thinking. 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Afterwards they move restlessly in middle of the night in a bog that comes up to subject, a central tool in Cytter’s work, intensifies their beds, hovering between relief and suffering, his knees, looking around in all directions. His Keren Cytter’s video work “No Title Yet” is based the estrangement. In an article in the art magazine between purifying emptiness and self-disgust. In behaviour makes no sense. Another scene shows a on what is defined as “the theatre of repetition”, a Artforum she says that even utopian hopes about the background, as mentioned above, Zmira Chen massive night time rave; the dancers are half naked, theatre that offers a language of dynamic signifiers overcoming the crisis of the authentic have sings the song “Let My People Go”. wearing wigs. In another scene, a man with big and gestures, that hover in the space of the show themselves become clichés and “readymades”.18 The work has an inverted textual dimension – grey hair stands outside a colourful tent coughing with no phenomenological orientation. Rather Thus she follows a practice of mimicry while the “Let Go” functions as an encouragement lengthily; he keeps going in and out of the tent than mediating between two characters standing blurring the gap between the real and the staged. for rebellion, as if spurring the contents of the with no apparent reason. Another monitor shows on stage, this language functions prior to the Cytter wishes to expose the synthetic nature of stomach to rebel against the body and the body a couple on a tree, either cuddling or making out. words. the recited sentence and the cinematic mechanism to revolt against the contents of the stomach. The couple climbs down with difficulty – thus Cytter’s film introduces the viewers to a theatrical that drives the characters and confronts them with Either way there is an element of liberation in exposing the mechanisms behind the situation. A experience that takes place in a number of parallel the filmed situation. The manner in which she the discharge. The celebration of the Dionysian, romantic scene becomes a cumbersome act. On set-ups. On the stage there is a table, some portable uses the practice of mimesis brings to mind Walter according to Friedrich Nietzsche, is not merely another monitor, a big man with long and straight clothes hangers, lighting poles and various stage Benjamin’s discussion of the ability to become part of a ritual in Greek culture, but a fundamental blond hair repeatedly strokes himself and his hair props. Downstage there is a book cabinet and similar, the mental capacity for assimilation and aspect of human nature, revealed in the thriving while playing an undefined instrument. Another an unmade bed. The actors play family members mimicry, the ability to identify common patterns for “obliteration of the customary manacles and man sits opposite him on a speaker that stands in having destructive conversations on stage, as well of action and to adopt them. This approach to boundaries of existence.”22 On the mental plane the water. On the one hand the viewers can detect as behind the scenes, with audience reactions the mimetic ability examines the process rather this urge is revealed in the attempt to attain an parts that seem to be taken from the theatre of heard in the background. The viewers, lost among than the final product.19 The mimetic ability thus ecstatic rapture in which “the subjective fades the absurd or a carnival of identities, and on the a number of situations that refuse to be harnessed described questions and destabilises the foundations into complete forgetfulness of self.”23 This ecstasy other they are exposed to the conditions of work together into a traditional plot, are momentarily of the link between the sign and the signified, (in Greek ek-stasis – standing outside the self) behind the scenes. There is an imitation of reality unable to grasp what is happening in front of their between the represented and its representation. is a powerful experience of transcendence that while blurring the gap between the real and the eyes. The video work seems to be documenting Cytter actualises the dismantling of the signifiers, goes beyond a merely sensual pleasure, beyond staged, as in Keren Cytter’s works. Other scenes the bizarre show, yet it has no concrete beginning the disintegration of the subject and the decline of even the sense of space and time. In the ecstatic show a heap of bodies lying one on top of the or end. The work keeps unfolding and moving in a the regime of harmonious identities. In this sense, state, the private consciousness of the I dissolves, other at the crack of dawn, a man putting a stuffed spiral fashion, between the front of the fourth wall15 her drifting among different identities, her use of merging with the borderless being of the absolute. animal on a fox in the middle of the forest, empty and the back of the stage. Cytter’s visual language emptied clichés and her endless repetition grasp as the thinker Georges Bataille described this bottles floating on the water, people walking in is realistic and direct, and she seems to compel the some of the essence of contemporary barbarity. experience.24 The Dionysian pursuit of ecstasy the water, getting out of the river, going back in, viewers into a “suspension of disbelief” and into Anselm Franke, in an essay on the characteristics expresses a deep longing for self-annihilation, and so on and so forth. No cinematic purpose, no devotion. The removal of the fourth wall creates of contemporary theatre and performance entitled for doing away with the separate being of the theatrical, literary or narratological purpose. Just a estrangement and alienation and highlights the “Afterword on the Theatre of Transgression”, individual. Sisyphean absurdity. 
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The becoming large, bombastic captions in Hebrew and English, creates a ‘node’, an encounter or a link between like “Let me out”, “I’ll cut his dick off”, “The two heterogeneous terms that deterritorialise Terror”, “Third Generation”, “Always”, “Burn”, each other.”27 a Batman symbol with a question mark on the back. The artist-butcher-murderer-Jew looks full Lior Shvil’s installation is split into two channels: of energy and fighting spirit – sharpening knives, one a television set showing a kind of TV profile- chopping up corpses, getting blood all over interview: “The Confession”, and the other a large himself, and finally we see the caption: “You like screening of “The Trailer”. it!”. “The Confession” is a solo performance by the The work has two main layers, one biographical artist himself, in the role of a kosher butcher and the other cultural. Shvil’s Zionist ideologue airing his murderous tendency; a tendency that grandfather, a kind of collective portrait of Israel’s has developed in direct contrast to the figure founding generation, is incorporated into the of the ideal pioneer that was his grandfather. figure of the grandson as a kosher-butcher, but The atmosphere designed by Shvil to support with a demonic reversal. The familiar narrative his psychopathic character relies deliberately that aspires to a moral “good” has been lost. heavily on the generic conventions of horror The supreme, unified and collective “good”, films: a damp cellar, fire, smoke and quick camera represented in the culture and in the myths and movements. The butcher himself is naked, wearing constantly recycled on primetime television, is only a blood-stained long white vinyl apron; his emptied of its contents. There is only a derisive gloves are black; he wears a black band around theatrical display of symbols, confused, clichéd his head and his long blackened nose highlights identities. Shvil performs a linguistic transgression his Jewishness. Behind him hang lumps of meat through his transition between a major language and signs with captions such as “Gewald, Just (English, as well as the familiar TV format, from Above, Oy”. The butcher is standing next to a cookery shows to profiles) and a minor language cold metallic table holding a terrifying knife, (Yiddish, Hebrew, Gibberish) and through his chopping something that looks like a corpse games with centre and periphery, presenting the wrapped in nylon, while making smug, horrifying viewers with a human beast, a hybrid creature, a and disorderly statements in English spoken with mixture of the fighting founders of the country a thick Israeli accent. “I am gonna cut your dick” and the blood-thirsty money-grabbers that Yitzhak he promises with a deranged smile, explaining, as Rabin nicknamed “a fallout of wimps”. if he were a chef in a television cookery show, how to cut up a human corpse. Then he turns Yuli Aloni-Primor is the youngest artist in the to the invisible and inaudible interviewer: “What exhibition. Her piece is called “Garbo”, a name would you like to ask?” and now he stands on taken from the logo stitched on the back pocket a podium in the corner of the butcher shop (a of a pair of jeans worn by a manikin in the shape Confessional?), with two Stars of David painted of a boy. Aloni plays with the double meaning of on a sheet of plywood behind him. The butcher the word Garbo, which brings to mind the boy’s confesses that he does not like the Stars of David. fantasy about the adored godly actress, and also When his grandfather came to Israel, he tells the takes into consideration the Italian term “garbo”, implied interviewer, he had an ideology, he fought meaning tact and grace. constantly, in all the wars. He himself, he says, The installation “Garbo” consists of several developed doubts about ideology. He says that in objects and two miniaturised video works, shown the place where he himself comes from – “reality on the screens of two walkie-talkie sculptures

45 of reversible intensities… The animal does not is totally fucked up, people die all the time, a shitty connected to a vacuum cleaner that has a long as mentioned a walkie-talkie, a vacuum cleaner, speak ‘like’ a human but extracts tonalities without reality. A reality that you constantly want to cut suction pipe. The vacuum cleaner is also held a boy-manikin with unzipped trousers, a metallic signification from language; the words… climb up up, finish off, kill. I left all this shit, but with pain by the boy-manikin, who as already mentioned soundtrack carrying a forgotten utopian memory – on their own – bark and swarm being dogs, and with memories, so the killing for me is not a is wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. However the and photographic portraits of the artist, as well insects, or mice that are actually verbal. To make the desire but pure habit. For me killing is like jogging zipper in his trousers is slightly open, like a slight as an auto-erotic organ in the shape of a mirror sequence vibrate, to open the word to unheard-of for you.” During the confession, quick transitions hint undermining his innocent looks. His body and manikin legs in sexy attire – functions as a inner intensities, in short, an asignifying, intensive show the viewers his professional meat-pounding is turned towards the objects sticking out of the productive machine whose various organs are use of language… a circuit of states which form a skills. In a hybrid dialect of English, Hebrew and wall, in which the little videos are screened. One wired together. The boy, vacuuming leftovers mutual becoming – within an arrangement that is Yiddish he speaks of his love for the smell of meat, is a graphic-minimalist-line-drawn animation clip and dusty waste seemingly discharged by the necessarily multiple or collective.”26 for blood and for spilling organs, concluding his in an endless loop, showing a young man who communications sets, may be seen as receiving “Becoming animal” for Deleuze and Guattari is confession with a huge smile, claiming that he is is following a young woman. Holding his erect or being fed, but also as emitting and feeding certainly not mimicry; it is rather like the mimetic truly living his real nature: “I’m a murderer but a sexual organ in his hand, the young man walks the means of communication with the contents ability described by Benjamin, an endless process happy, liberated murderer”. past the young woman in a mechanical gait, while of his fantasy-rich inner world, which seems that undermines and shakes the foundations Another monitor screens “The Trailer” for the slightly brushing against her, which is probably to contradict his appearance as a highly polite, of the link between the sign and the signified. programme “The Confession”. The preview is enough to cause him to ejaculate, and so on probably slightly Oedipal boy, a good boy helping “When someone or something is in the process made in aggressive advertisement language, with repeatedly. The other walkie-talkie screens a clip his mother with her housework. of becoming, what he becomes changes to the vulgar graphics and murderous typography and showing a young man with a shock of hair and extent that he himself changes. The becoming large, bombastic captions in Hebrew and English, a bare chest dancing ecstatically to trance music. Eti Wieseltier’s film is screened-emptied-drained creates a ‘node’, an encounter or a link between like “Let me out”, “I’ll cut his dick off”, “The The video is interrupted and distorted, the picture into a toilet and is called “Reliques”. It was two heterogeneous terms that deterritorialise Terror”, “Third Generation”, “Always”, “Burn”, jumping like during a transmission fault on a filmed in a real site revealed to the artist while each other.”27 a Batman symbol with a question mark on the domestic television set. Loudspeakers attached to scuba-diving at Yolanda Reef in the area of Ras back. The artist-butcher-murderer-Jew looks full the walkie-talkie sculptures play the soundtrack: Muhammad in Sinai. It is a kind of primeval Lior Shvil’s installation is split into two channels: of energy and fighting spirit – sharpening knives, an amorphous performance of an unidentified underwater kingdom, full of romantic ruins one a television set showing a kind of TV profile- chopping up corpses, getting blood all over song. Only the words “Sachki, sachki” (play, play) sunk way back in time. The ancient remains interview: “The Confession”, and the other a large himself, and finally we see the caption: “You like can be heard clearly, directing us to the poem “I seem to suggest a developed culture, advanced screening of “The Trailer”. it!”. believe” by Shaul Tchernichovsky (originally a enough to accomplish a sophisticated design “The Confession” is a solo performance by the The work has two main layers, one biographical utopian poem expressing a deep wish for socialism, of modern man’s emptying tool – white, shiny, artist himself, in the role of a kosher butcher and the other cultural. Shvil’s Zionist ideologue patriotism, and faith in the human spirit). Next to cool porcelain, standing in sharp contrast to the airing his murderous tendency; a tendency that grandfather, a kind of collective portrait of Israel’s the screening walkie-talkies hang two provocative contents it is designed to receive. Piles of toilet has developed in direct contrast to the figure founding generation, is incorporated into the self-portrait photographs of the artist, seen seats, in spectacular compositions of romantic of the ideal pioneer that was his grandfather. figure of the grandson as a kosher-butcher, but directing a seductive gaze at the camera. In one ruins, have descended to the bottom of the sea The atmosphere designed by Shvil to support with a demonic reversal. The familiar narrative of them she shows off her bra-wearing body, her and slowly merged with the underwater wildlife. his psychopathic character relies deliberately that aspires to a moral “good” has been lost. hands rolling down her trousers from the waist Seaweeds and shells, fish and sea anemones have heavily on the generic conventions of horror The supreme, unified and collective “good”, towards the groin. In the second photograph she is found refuge among the tiaras of white porcelain films: a damp cellar, fire, smoke and quick camera represented in the culture and in the myths and wrapped in some splint-like construction, a metal toilet seats made to support man’s bottom. It movements. The butcher himself is naked, wearing constantly recycled on primetime television, is pipe coming out of her mouth as if to feed her. seems that Yolanda was the name of a Cypriot only a blood-stained long white vinyl apron; his emptied of its contents. There is only a derisive Is she paralysed? Or maybe disabled? She seems freighter carrying whisky, toilet seats and a BMW gloves are black; he wears a black band around theatrical display of symbols, confused, clichéd to be playing the role of a constrained woman in car. Some say it sank in April 1980 while others his head and his long blackened nose highlights identities. Shvil performs a linguistic transgression some erotic fantasy. insist that its remains were already discovered in his Jewishness. Behind him hang lumps of meat through his transition between a major language Another component of the installation is a round the early 1970s. Who or what hit it? Again, some and signs with captions such as “Gewald, Just (English, as well as the familiar TV format, from mirror hanging on the perpendicular wall. The say Bedouin pirates disrupted the work of the Above, Oy”. The butcher is standing next to a cookery shows to profiles) and a minor language mirror seems to be sucking in a woman-manikin. lighthouse in order to commit robbery, while cold metallic table holding a terrifying knife, (Yiddish, Hebrew, Gibberish) and through his Only the manikin’s legs stick out of the mirror, as some believe that the ship’s crew got drunk and chopping something that looks like a corpse games with centre and periphery, presenting the if they were the legs of Icarus about to follow him lost its bearings and its control. wrapped in nylon, while making smug, horrifying viewers with a human beast, a hybrid creature, a into the depth of the sea, like in Bruegel’s famous The film “Reliques” wishes to bow to the greatest and disorderly statements in English spoken with mixture of the fighting founders of the country painting. She is wearing black fishnet stockings myth of 20th-century art, the piece that sought a thick Israeli accent. “I am gonna cut your dick” and the blood-thirsty money-grabbers that Yitzhak and garters on her legs, and high-heeled shoes on to declare itself “non-art” – Marcel Duchamp’s he promises with a deranged smile, explaining, as Rabin nicknamed “a fallout of wimps”. her feet. Again it seems that the lady being sucked “Fountain”. Greek mythology’s Venus and Moshe if he were a chef in a television cookery show, into her own reflection is nothing but an object of Shamir’s Elik may have been born from the sea, how to cut up a human corpse. Then he turns Yuli Aloni-Primor is the youngest artist in the desire, or one of the fantasies of the boy holding but neo-barbarism in art was born from the to the invisible and inaudible interviewer: “What exhibition. Her piece is called “Garbo”, a name the vacuum cleaner pipe. Perhaps the manikin “Fountain”. 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44 a reaction of visual indifference with at the same society had promised that any independent artist בעמוד הקודם: מאיה ז"ק time a total absence of good or bad taste – in fact paying six dollars would be allowed to take part חוק שחור לבן 2010 a complete anaesthesia. I realised very soon the in the exhibition, but nevertheless when Richard danger of repeating indiscriminately this form of Mutt sent in the “Fountain”, it was rejected and וידאו :Next Page expression and decided to limit the production of disappeared (there are a few replicas in existence Maya Zack ‘readymades’ to a small number yearly. I was aware made and signed by Duchamp in 1963, but Black and White Rule 2010 at that time, that for the spectator even more than he admitted signing them in a “moment of Video for the artist, art is a habit-forming drug and I prostitution”). In fact, the original object was wanted to protect my ‘readymades’ against such never exhibited, it only appeared in the small, contamination.”28 free and uncensored magazine (any article was Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of the Dada accepted in return for a contribution of 4 dollars) movement (that co-opted Duchamp, as did of which Duchamp was one of the editors, in a Surrealism later), insisted that participants in brief report on the case, with a beautiful photo Dada “had repudiated all distinction between by Alfred Stieglitz. Only there the work became life and poetry”29 and determined that “the real realised as an idea, a concept, resulting from the aim of art (was) integration with the present-day cooperation between the editors of the magazine, world… because it seemed to us that literature the photographer, and the journalist who and art had become institutions located on the contributed the item. margin of life.”30 Since then, Art’s status in life has hardly advanced towards any centre. Life, after all, In “Zipper”, Benni Efrat’s video work, there is a does not wish to integrate with art. Duchamp’s turning of the tables of the type that seems binary legacy continues to have an influence in the new but points to total chaos. It is a fulfilled prophecy, millennium; his overt reference to random creative in which it is unclear who is threatening whom, processes, his language experiments and games or who is deterritorialising whom – nature man and his insistence on the importance of ideas or man nature. The screen is split horizontally. The over retinal entertainments have left an indelible implied, invisible horizon line zips together two mark. The conceptual act continues to resonate. events, the encounter between which is loaded It is hard to imagine the direction contemporary and apocalyptic. The lower part of the screen art would have taken without him. But it is also shows a wide multi-lane road, full of vehicles and hard to believe that Duchamp himself would have the heavy traffic typical of a major artery. We can been pleased with everything that proclaims itself only guess the resulting massive pollution. Above to be carrying his signature. He himself, aware of the moving traffic, meanwhile, like a roaring the danger of repeating his acts, publicly retired monster, in the upper part of the picture, rages the from the art world in 1923, merely six years after sea, its waves breaking in the opposite direction to the circumstances of the showing and mysterious the traffic. The effect is simple, clean, but stomach- disappearance of the “Fountain”. But it is the idea of churning, as threatening as a sign from heaven, the readymade that trickled down into the depths as an ecological catastrophe, as nature’s violent of contemporary art. Ironically it is precisely the revolt. readymade – which provided a dangerous formula To summarise Benni Efrat’s moral ambiguity, his for generations of artists who have sworn by their barbarism which turns against itself (and therefore commitment to a “non-hierarchical aesthetic” – can be called neo-barbarism), we should mention that is less understood than all his other actions. a project he thought up in 1980 and has not been The readymade was not invented in relation able to realised ever since. Efrat wished to perform to the aesthetisation of everyday materials and a small post-conceptual act, with an atomic effect objects of mass production, nor was it shown as that would radiate and eclipse his entire oeuvre: a static object (especially in view of the fact that he proposed to place a cigarette-pack-sized piece the urinal-fountain had to wait many years before of enriched and charged uranium on the top being realised as a replicated object for display) of Mt. Everest. According to him, the radiation but as a catalyst for cultural interaction, and in would spread no further than a certain radius, direct relation to the fact that art itself is a cultural which he has of course calculated. And that is construct made by humans. The object’s display it. In 1980, by the way, Efrat’s artistic career split was only one addition to the “common event” in two. 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43 a reaction of visual indifference with at the same society had promised that any independent artist His conclusion: only an atomic bomb would solve penchant for the absurd and the grotesque has time a total absence of good or bad taste – in fact paying six dollars would be allowed to take part the problem, and let him die with the Philistines. intensified, creating an overlap between the mode a complete anaesthesia. I realised very soon the in the exhibition, but nevertheless when Richard He has ordered his body to be burned and the of expression and the content. In almost all his danger of repeating indiscriminately this form of Mutt sent in the “Fountain”, it was rejected and ashes spread above Mt. Carmel, near the sea. The works he manages to mess with sacred cows expression and decided to limit the production of disappeared (there are a few replicas in existence inscription on the gravestone, he says, will read: “I without using steamroller force or breaking a ‘readymades’ to a small number yearly. I was aware made and signed by Duchamp in 1963, but am not here”. sweat. at that time, that for the spectator even more than he admitted signing them in a “moment of for the artist, art is a habit-forming drug and I prostitution”). In fact, the original object was In the parapsychological script-play written by Ruti Sela was also characterised from the early wanted to protect my ‘readymades’ against such never exhibited, it only appeared in the small, Lior Waterman for his new video installation, stages of her career by a natural, provocative contamination.”28 free and uncensored magazine (any article was he assigned the role of the hero to a dolphin and unrestrained wildness. All her works feature Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of the Dada accepted in return for a contribution of 4 dollars) in an aquarium. In his behaviour, Waterman’s a vulnerable subject “speaking” in a minor movement (that co-opted Duchamp, as did of which Duchamp was one of the editors, in a dolphin is far from resembling a pet, although language, the language of minorities and of the Surrealism later), insisted that participants in brief report on the case, with a beautiful photo the screenwriter relies on new-age assumptions frayed margins. In the documentary film she Dada “had repudiated all distinction between by Alfred Stieglitz. Only there the work became that attribute to the dolphin therapeutic powers. shows in this exhibition – “Nothing to Lose” – life and poetry”29 and determined that “the real realised as an idea, a concept, resulting from the Here the dolphin is a kind of communicator – a she joins a community of drunken night birds aim of art (was) integration with the present-day cooperation between the editors of the magazine, tyrannical and worshipped medium who manages loitering in the city of Toulouse, France. It seems world… because it seemed to us that literature the photographer, and the journalist who the lives of some of the characters in the video that Sela (and the camera that has long become and art had become institutions located on the contributed the item. and even blackmails them sexually and financially. one of her body organs) becomes one of them, margin of life.”30 Since then, Art’s status in life has The dolphin itself has a mediating medium – it although she does not speak their language. hardly advanced towards any centre. Life, after all, In “Zipper”, Benni Efrat’s video work, there is a makes itself heard through a ventriloquist or a French is the dominant language in Toulouse, does not wish to integrate with art. Duchamp’s turning of the tables of the type that seems binary spokesperson shown on a television screen. The but the drunkards’ stuttering chatter belongs to a legacy continues to have an influence in the new but points to total chaos. It is a fulfilled prophecy, dolphin’s spokesperson is a bottom. Through the universal dialect, it is the same uninhibited babble, millennium; his overt reference to random creative in which it is unclear who is threatening whom, bottom an absurd dialogue develops between the same unsublimated crushed linguistic gravel, processes, his language experiments and games or who is deterritorialising whom – nature man the wily dolphin and the humiliated characters that instils in the extroverted subject a good feeling and his insistence on the importance of ideas or man nature. The screen is split horizontally. The seeking its words. The perverse dolphin, having of transgressive transformation. Indeed, a group of over retinal entertainments have left an indelible implied, invisible horizon line zips together two adopted the dominant language of the human congregating drunkards often tends to perform mark. The conceptual act continues to resonate. events, the encounter between which is loaded beings that have abused it, and whose moral idiotic acts and play the classical subversive role of It is hard to imagine the direction contemporary and apocalyptic. The lower part of the screen perversion is no different in essence from the the clown, whose performance offers a grotesque art would have taken without him. But it is also shows a wide multi-lane road, full of vehicles and perversion of many “coaches” who presume to mirror image of those in positions of authority hard to believe that Duchamp himself would have the heavy traffic typical of a major artery. We can give guidance to human beings who have lost and dominance, and of the representatives of been pleased with everything that proclaims itself only guess the resulting massive pollution. Above their way, speaks the following words through the reason and sobriety. to be carrying his signature. He himself, aware of the moving traffic, meanwhile, like a roaring bottom: “You must understand, we are really at a The work consists of two videos displayed one the danger of repeating his acts, publicly retired monster, in the upper part of the picture, rages the dead end. There is no real solution to the suffering above the other. One shows the static image from the art world in 1923, merely six years after sea, its waves breaking in the opposite direction to at the moment; the louder you shout the more of a person sleeping on the roof of a car in an the circumstances of the showing and mysterious the traffic. The effect is simple, clean, but stomach- you get. The more you are capable of, the more underground car park. The camera is fixed, disappearance of the “Fountain”. But it is the idea of churning, as threatening as a sign from heaven, your suffering is destructive. That’s why there’s no one long shot focusing on one image. Above the readymade that trickled down into the depths as an ecological catastrophe, as nature’s violent choice but to let things stay as they are. To avoid this screen there is a higher screen showing the of contemporary art. Ironically it is precisely the revolt. becoming a burden. Someone has to pay the price second video, which is all frantic and Dionysian readymade – which provided a dangerous formula To summarise Benni Efrat’s moral ambiguity, his and it better be the weak ones. Otherwise it will nocturnal restlessness. On the crowded street of for generations of artists who have sworn by their barbarism which turns against itself (and therefore simply be worse.” Toulouse, a moustachioed man asks the artist commitment to a “non-hierarchical aesthetic” – can be called neo-barbarism), we should mention Waterman’s video installation consists of a pair of to turn her camera on him. She acquiesces and that is less understood than all his other actions. a project he thought up in 1980 and has not been loudspeakers installed one on top of the other, responds with a close-up of his mouth and his The readymade was not invented in relation able to realised ever since. Efrat wished to perform with a net sloping over them. The image of a magnificent moustache. Cut. In a typical young to the aesthetisation of everyday materials and a small post-conceptual act, with an atomic effect dolphin is screened on the net. The image and the people’s flat we see two young men speaking in objects of mass production, nor was it shown as that would radiate and eclipse his entire oeuvre: image’s voice unite into one source, but with a French. Rock plays in the background, the table a static object (especially in view of the fact that he proposed to place a cigarette-pack-sized piece hierarchical inversion: the voice coming out of the is crammed with bottles of alcohol, cigarette the urinal-fountain had to wait many years before of enriched and charged uranium on the top speakers has a tow image. In the vicinity of the butts and piles of papers. Suddenly the two start being realised as a replicated object for display) of Mt. Everest. According to him, the radiation loudspeakers on which the dolphin is swimming playing, spraying each other with the contents of but as a catalyst for cultural interaction, and in would spread no further than a certain radius, stands a television set which shows the image of the bottles, laughing out loud, climbing on the direct relation to the fact that art itself is a cultural which he has of course calculated. And that is the speaking bottom. furniture and on one another. Cut. Night, outside, construct made by humans. The object’s display it. In 1980, by the way, Efrat’s artistic career split Lior Waterman graduated from the Bezalel a bar, a constant drone of conversations in French, was only one addition to the “common event” in two. Before 1980, that is in the 70s, when he Academy of Art and Design about a year after alcohol-laden tables, a man carrying an armchair known as “The Richard Mutt Case: Buddha of the was considered a groundbreaking and pioneering the Twin Towers had collapsed in a spectacular to the corner of the street. A drunkard stands Bathroom”. 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42 drunk people dancing. Cut. Outside the club, a ground” consists of that soundtrack, for which the בעמוד הבא: אבנר בן גל pair of dogs. At the street corner a young man artist edited materials from YouTube documenting מה קורה קהלני? שרוף את with a bare bottom tries to hold a dart between fighting in built up areas during the Yom Kippur ירושלים עד היסוד 2010 ,his buttocks. The camera moves to a street party, a War. The materials show, amongst other things וידאו, 80 שניות crowd of people dancing and drinking. Glasses and tanks, soldiers, bombings, explosions, fire and :Previous Page bottles breaking. The cheerful group is blocking smoke. The footage was edited in October 2010, #TKSTQD
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-HKN dancing. Cut. Street, night, a group of girls singing, radio, Ben-Gal planted the updated order: “Burn the boys are whipping each other’s bottoms. One Jerusalem… I repeat: Burn it with all its seven of the guys goes to the toilet between two cars. gates. Advance on Jerusalem and burn it to the There is a big smile on his face. A few youths undo ground. Its buildings, sons, loved ones, finish them their trousers and, one foot behind the other, bend off…”. over like a group of sprinters on the starting line, When he released the CD, Ben-Gal already noted baring their bottoms in the headlights of the cars that although the name “The Kahalani Brothers”, driving towards them. In the middle of the road chosen for the group of musicians and for the “Although violence in the Israeli society is nothing new, find how safe the most populated city in Europe has the bottom-bared group decides to compose a album, echoes the name of the war hero and the scale it has reached is unprecedented […] And if become within less than a hundred and fifty years. human pyramid. former government minister Avigdor Kahalani, it you are still not convinced, here is an example: today a Take the French saying “à la guerre comme à la The lower screen still shows the underground car actually refers to the Jewish terrorists known as man murdered his wife and two young children with a guerre” [all is fair in war (and love)]; it is advisable park. On one of the cars, like a calm, wrapped- “The Kahalani Brothers”. The sorry affair began gun and took his own life! […] It seems that all the red to believe the Old Testament and Homer when they up baby, the same person is sleeping. Perfectly in the early 1990s, when Kiryat Arba was a central lines have been crossed and there are no limits anymore, describe massacre and rape in the ancient world as still. Once in a while a car is seen starting up and hub of activity for far-right activists. The Kahalani no guard at the gate. […] Today, much more than ever common occurrences, since this custom was rife leaving the car park. Nothing disturbs the revelling brothers announced that they intended to murder before, we are exposed to serious violence in the media, in the killing fields until last night. Today, on the drunkard’s sleep of the just. an Arab, and yet, or perhaps for that purpose, they on the street, and for many of us, even the home is no other hand, the rare nations that still go to war received from a neighbour (who was subsequently longer a protected and cosy place. What has happened don’t make a move without lawyers at their sides. Avner Ben-Gal shows a new 80-seconds-long revealed as a Shin Bet agent) a vehicle and two to us to make us so violent?” Just imagine anyone trying to interest the Huns and film called “What's happening Kahalani / Burn M-16 rifles. On 2 September 1994, the brothers Dudi Aharoni (from the essay “A History of the Amalekites in the Geneva Convention. Yet today, Jerusalem to the ground”. The entire film is parked their vehicle on a dirt road leading to the Violence”, posted on the website “Kabbalah La’am”, their heirs from Rwanda, Serbia and Hebron tremble steeped in desperate provocation and betrayal – village Batir, where they stopped a cyclist named www.kab.co.il) when they hear “The Haag”. Can you imagine a content-wise, theme-wise, form-wise. As if to Shami. One of the brothers raised the rifle, pointed contemporary spiritual leader allowing himself to say: Enough. No more. It must be stopped. Israeli it at Shami’s head and shot him from point-blank “I have to say, on this sad day, that we are a violent personally slaughter “false” prophets, as Elijah did to arrogance; religious isolationism in all its guises; range. Shami survived and the Kahalani brothers society. Side by side with manifestations of volunteering the 450 Prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel? (the fate the destruction of the fabric of life; the injustices were sentenced to 12 years in prison. Upon their and humanity and mutual help, we are gripped by a and burial place of the 400 prophets of the goddess visited constantly on the Arab residents – their release, after only eight years, they returned to live cruel violence – that seems to be increasing daily. Each Asherah is still unknown). neighbourhoods, houses, rights; religious coercion; in Kiryat Arba. time it seems we have crossed the red line, and then the There are still people living among us who can the endless war over Jerusalem’s sovereignty – the horrific scenes hit us again. And this is neither a ‘fancy remember the daily violence of teachers in the most problematic city in the world, and the wish phrase’ nor an exaggeration”. classroom and parents in the home. How many to own it as whole and unified, corrupt as it may Dalia Rabin (from a speech given at the ceremony people aged forty or less have had their fingers slapped be. marking the 14th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s with a ruler? Who among the readers of these lines The problem of Jerusalem, with its ideological, assassination, 2009) has seen their father take off his belt, slowly, with political and urban aspects, is the core issue of the the earnestness of someone doing a good deed and conflict in the Middle East. You do not have to ho would dare argue with such widely responding to bad behaviour with an act of kindness be a pessimist in order to doubt the possibility accepted assertions? I would. And with (“He who spares the rod” etc), and then whip his of a solution for this issue. Neither does the gap Wme, any person who has any sense son, and sometimes his daughter, until both flogger between the universal fantasy about Jerusalem and whose brain has not been completely washed and flogged have lost their humanity? and the crazy reality encourage a solution. “The by the sensationalist headlines of newspapers and We could give examples from any number of fields Temple Mount is in our hands”, declared colonel the words of ministers and social workers, and who in which man is a wolf to his fellow man and a group Motta Gur back in the Six Days War, and it seems has also developed a certain immunity to quality is even worse to its fellow group, such examples that that the battle that started then has never ended. TV programmes such as “Screensaver” and “Fact”. would convince the converted and even two-three In Israel, since 1967, government policy on the For, contrary to conventional wisdom, the scale sceptics – yet still the conventional picture of our issue of the capital has never been discussed or of violence, both among individuals and among era, as the most violent since Cain lifted his arm examined. Meanwhile the city is disintegrating. groups, is actually decreasing with time. Humanity is against Abel, would not change even one bit. What The film’s name is based on the name of a undergoing an accelerated process of sublimation. It is the reason for this gap between the state of things musical sound piece opening the CD that has been true for a number of years – to be precise, in the world, known to us all, and the representation Ben-Gal released in 2001, to coincide with the for the last thousands of years. If you compare the of this state in human consciousness? The key is exhibition “The Eve of Destruction”. The CD amount of courage needed for a person to walk in the Freudian couple “the reality principle” and included various electro-metallic pieces, edited through the streets of Victorian London – the one “the pleasure principle”. Although historical reality like a soundtrack for a war film. The film “What's evoked by Dickens’ novels, for example – to a current testifies to an increasing sublimation of both the happening Kahalani / Burn Jerusalem to the walk around Trafalgar Square, you will be amazed to urges and their realisation, the (perverse) pleasure

37 יולי אלוני-פרימור

בני אפרת

בועז ארד Yuli Aloni-Primor אבנר בן גל Boaz Arad שרון בלבן Sharon Balaban איתן ברטל Eitan Bartal שריף ואכד Avner Ben-Gal ליאור ווטרמן Keren Cytter אתי ויזלטיר Benni Efrat גל ויינשטיין Uri Katzenstein מאיה ז“ק Gilad Ratman רותי סלע Roee Rosen קרן ציטר Ruti Sela אורי קצנשטיין Lior Shvil רועי רוזן Sharif Waked גלעד רטמן Lior Waterman ליאור שביל Gal Weinstein

Eti Wieseltier

Maya Zack אוצרות נעמי אביב, נועם סגל

Curators Naomi Aviv, Noam Segal