Ronit Agassi. the Fifth Season 14|02–05|05|2019

13.02.2019 Press information

Ronit Agassi. The Fifth Season 14|02–05|05|2019

The art installation ‘The Fifth Season’ by Israeli artist Ronit Agassi will be shown at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism from 14 February. Agassi’s works and objects, some of which were created especially for the Documentation Centre, revolve around the seasons and various aspects of human threat.

In her work, Ronit Agassi weaves together various strands of narrative referencing both the history of the twentieth century and her own Dr. Kirstin Frieden Public Relations biography. Born on a Kibbutz in 1948, the year the State of Israel was Tel. +49 89 233-67013 founded, Ronit Agassi’s childhood and youth were shaped by the Fax +49 89 233-67005 [email protected] myth of Israel as a collective agricultural utopia. At the same time, her www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de early life was also affected by images of war, the military and the Twitter @nsdoku | #nsdoku trauma of the Holocaust.

Taking the theme of the four seasons – autumn, winter, spring and summer – as well as a fifth season that has no name and neither a future nor a present, Ronit Agassi creates a disturbing yet poetic A institution run by sequence of sculptures, readymades, textile works, drawings and a the City of Munich video, which she links associatively. Ronit Agassi likes to work with organic, fragile materials such as leaves, pebbles and Japan paper, Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

13.02.2019 Press information

page 2/2 which she either paints or embroiders in fine stitches. In this way, the artist takes her audience on a journey to the fifth season whose sinis- ter tales only gradually emerge below its fragile surface. With ‘The Fifth Season’ Ronit Agassi has created a complex work full of allu- sions. Alongside historical motifs it also uses elements of fairy-tales, literature, music and art history, opening up disparate visual worlds.

The contrast between materiality and motif is shown, for example, in the nine leaves arranged in a tableaux. She has embroidered the delicate organic material in fine cross-stitch in earth and pastel tones in such a way that the faces of leading Nazi figures such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler become discernible in the ornamental pattern. Agassi collected the leaves in the Berlin district of Grunewald. It was from Grunewald station that 50,000 Jews were deported to the extermination camps between 1941 and 1945.

In its temporary exhibitions the Munich Documentation Centre delib- erately sets out to use new methodological concepts and approaches to address the history of the Nazi era or to reference current socio- political issues. The installation ‘The Fifth Season’ by Ronit Agassi does this through the medium of contemporary art. The fragile, organic materiality of the installation forms a contrast to the sober documentation and educational approach of the permanent exhibition at the Munich Documentation Centre, which is dominated by text and images. Agassi’s objects develop a visual, emotional power, evoking sub-conscious associations for visitors and encouraging contempla- tion.

The art installation ‘The Fifth Season’ will run from 14 February to 5 May 2019 in the temporary exhibition area of the Documentation Centre. On 14 February, at 5.30 pm, a discussion will take place between the artist, Ronit Agassi, and the curator, Sabine Brantl. There will also be several curator-guided tours of the exhibition.

For further information please visit: www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen. de 13.02.2019 Press information

Ronit Agassi

Ronit Agassi was born in 1948 at Merhavia Kibbutz in northern Israel. She studied at Oranim College in Tivon, and at the University of Haifa where she graduated in art education and art therapy. Until 1987, she worked as an art therapist at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. Agassi had her first solo exhibition ‘Points of Encounter’ in 1980 at the Tref- fpunkt Gallery in Zurich. Ronit Agassi’s work has been shown all over the world, including in Britain and Germany as well as Israel. She has won many prizes and scholarships. In 2007 and 2014, she was Guest Artist at the Villa Waldberta, the international artist residence of the City of Munich.

Dr. Kirstin Frieden Solo exhibitions Public Relations Tel. +49 89 233-67013 1980 Points of Encounter. Treffpunkt Gallery, Zurich; ART ROOM Fax +49 89 233-67005 Gallery, Baden [email protected] www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de Twitter @nsdoku | #nsdoku 1982 Pastel Drawings. Margaret Fischer Gallery, London

1995 Giornata. Janco Dada Museum, Ein Hod

1999 Layers. Reinfeld Gallery, Bremen

A institution run by 2001 The Last Leaf. Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya the City of Munich 2002 Green House Testimonies – dialogue with Filipina artist Penny Velasquez. The Manila Museum of Visual Arts and Janco Dada Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

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Museum, Ein Hod

2010 Meeting Points: Ronit Agassi and Garry Goldstein. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv

Group exhibitions 1997 Fields of Memory. National Art Gallery, Salzburg; Artists’ House, Moscow; Latvia Museum of Foreign Art, Riga

1998 Story Time. British Foundation for the Arts, Kinder Gallery, London

2002 Firing Range. Kibbutz Gallery, Tel Aviv

2002 Views: Israeli Art from the Collection. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2003 Contemporary Art from Israel. Robert Sandelson Art Gallery, London

2004 Togetherness: The Group and the Kibbutz in Israeli Collection sciousness. Tel Aviv Museum of Art

2005 Beauty and the Book. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2005 The New Hebrews. Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin

2005 Looking Closely with One Eye. . . Monart Arts Center, Ashdod Museum of Art, Ashdod

2006 Insight of Nature. Academy of Fine Arts and Museum of Natu- ral History, Beijing

2007 One and All. Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design

2005 Artists’ House in collaboration with The Israel Museum, Jerusa lem

2007 Traces III: The Biennale for Drawing in Israel, Artist’s House, Jerusalem

2010 ‘The Freedom to Create Prize’. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

2012 Good Night. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

2013 Blood of the Maccabees: Memory and Bereavement in Israeli Art. The Negev Museum of Art, Beersheba

2015 One/Israel: Contemporary Artists from Israel. Imago Mundi- Luciano Benetton Collection, New Art, Venice Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

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2016 One/Israel: Contemporary Artists from Israel. The Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, New York

2017 On the Edge: Israeli Paper. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv

2018 Intense Stillness. Wilfrid Israel Museum, Kibbuz Hazorea Press images

Ronit Agassi. The Fifth Season 14|02–05|05|2019

13.02.2019 Press information

The images may be used in press 01 | Object from the arrange- reporting free of charge provided ment Autumn the full image credits are given. Embroidered leaf, various High-resolution files and other sizes motifs can be obtained by sending Photo: Orla Connolly, Jens a mail to: Weber [email protected]

02 | Object from the arrange- ment Autumn Children’s prayer table Wood, light 71 x 40 x 40 Photo: Orla Connolly, Jens Weber Dr. Kirstin Frieden Public Relations Tel. +49 89 233-67013 Fax +49 89 233-67005 [email protected] [email protected] www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de

03 | Object from the arrange- ment Winter Tin soldiers, cardboard, vari- A institution run by ous sizes the City of Munich Photo: Orla Connolly, Jens Weber Munich Dokumentation Centre for the History of National Socialism

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04 | Ronit Agassi Photo: Orla Connolly

05 | View of the exhibition Photo: Jens Weber

06 | View of the exhibition Photo: Jens Weber

07 | View of the exhibition Photo: Jens Weber