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YAEL BARTANA
Annet Gelink Gallery proudly presents the second solo exhibition of Yael Bartana (Israel, 1970).
Yael Bartana produced two video and sound installations in the past year, A Declaration (2006) and Summer Camp
(2007). Both works form part of her presentation in the gallery and a series of posters and photos. Both videoworks
are inspired by the Zionist propaganda films from the thirties and forties, both in visuals and audio as in subject.
For this occasion we have rebuilt the backroom of the gallery into a wooden construction in which Bartana’s latest
work Summer Camp can be viewed, also to be seen in Documenta XII in Kassel.
Summer Camp shows the activities of “The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions” (ICAHD); their actions
consist amongst others of rebuilding Palestinian houses in the occupied territories. In the summer of 2006 Bartana
filmed a group of ICAHD volunteers consisting of Palestinians, Israeli and various other nationalities, assisted by
Palestinian construction workers, who were trying to rebuild in the village of Anata (east of Jerusalem) the former
house of Abu Ahmed Al Hadad at exactly the same location where it was demolished by the Israeli authorities at the
end of 2005. The result is a phenomenally edited 12 minutes image and sound composition in which Bartana uses
the same stylistic devices as the Zionist propaganda films from the first half of the twentieth century.
For Summer Camp Bartana had herself inspired amongst others by Helmar Lerski’s film Awodah (Palestine 1935),
which just like other propaganda films from these days portrays the realisation of the Zionist dream to found a
nation-state under the motto “We came to Israel to build and to be built”. By quoting the old propaganda films
Bartana’s Summer Camp show the resemblance between the ideological and visual relation of building by the ICAHD
as a form of resistance against the occupation and the building of the state of Israel by the Zionist movement.
Helmar Lerski’s film Awodah is shown in the middle space of the gallery, where also some documentation can be
looked into.
The Bakery
The Bakery shows Bartana’s video work A Declaration (2006). The film pictures a man rowing at sea and arriving at a
rock where he replaces the proudly waving Israeli flag by a young olive tree. This action takes place at Andromeda’s
Rock, a rock in the Mediterranean in front of Jaffa’s harbour. The protagonist shows similarities with the first
Israeli pioneers from the propaganda films, strong and muscular, dressed in a white shirt and ready to toil the
land. Only this time the pioneer is presented to denationalise the country. One of the questions that A Declaration
asks is: what effect will it have when one national symbol is replaced by another?
Bartana’s video installations and photos were in display at many exhibitions in the past years. This year her work
can be seen (was on display) at amongst others the Documenta XII in Kassel, The Powerplant in Toronto and The
Jewish Museum in New York, last year she had a solo presentation in the VanAbbemuseum in Eindhoven, Kunstverein
in Hamburg, Fridericianum in Kassel and the Sao Paulo Biennale. Her work has been included in renowned
collections of national and international museums and collectors, such as Tate Modern, VanAbbemuseum, Boijmans
van Beuningen, Israel Museum and the Jewish Museum in NY.
Summer Camp can be seen until September 23 in Documenta XII, Neue Galerie, Kassel (DE).
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