And Europe Will Be Stunned

2007 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

Mary Koszmary (2007), one channel super 16 mm film transferred to video, color, sound, 10 min., 50 sec.; Mur I Wieza (2009), one channel RED transferred to Blue Ray DVD, color, sound, 15 min.; and Zamach (2011), one channel video and sound installation, RED transferred to HD, color, sound, 35 min.

Yael Bartana

location: ‘Afula, Yisra'el
year born: 1970
gender: female
nationality: Israeli

Yael Bartana received great international attention for the trilogy series And Europe Will be Stunned (2007 – 2011). The series, which includes the films Mary Koszmary (Nightmare) (2007) , Mur i wieza (Wall and Tower) (2009), and Zamach (Assassination) (2011), centers on a young Polish politician’s call for the return of 3.3 million Jewish people who emigrated to Palestine. The films employ the same techniques of Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films, combining fact and fiction with the past and the present. Opening film Mary Koszmary (Nightmares) is set in the ruins of Warsaw’s Stadion Dziesieciolecia (Decennial Stadium) where the politician Slawomir Sierakowski is identified and summons the return of the Jewish people from today’s Israel. The second film Mur I Wieza (Wall and Tower) we see the establishment of loyal and idealistic followers of Sierakowski and the Jewish Renaissance Movement. They build a barbed wire wrapped tower-and-stockade-style kibbutz that was a settlement method established and developed by Zionists in Palestine from 1936–39. The final film Zamach (Assassination) sees the assassination of Sierakowski by an unknown assailant, which solidifies the Jewish Renaissance Movement. The three films bring together images of past and present Israeli and Polish identities and imagines a dangerous future.


The work of Yael Bartana investigates the imagination and imagery of identity and the politics of national memory and identity. Her interest in understanding and examining national statehood stems from being born in Israel, and being surrounded by the perpetual production of collective national identity. After completing her studies, Bartana undertook what she called ‘amateur anthropological’ research into ritual and myth making to take a critical perspective towards her own history and nationality. As a result of her politically charged practice that often deals with Jewish identity in Israel and abroad, she has garnered significant criticism, notably being labeled as anti-Zionist and a self-hating Jew. Despite this criticism, Bartana believes that, through her work as an artist, exploring both political statehood and religious and political diaspora, she is responsible for addressing these issues. Bartana believes that growing up in such a politically charged state requires artists to become either political artists, or escapists.


Colors:



Untitled
© » KADIST

Keren Cytter

“Untitled” is inspired by the movie “Opening Night” by John Cassavetes with Gena Rowlands playing the role of a fallen woman, anguished by her distressed life...

Chocolate Bars, Eggs, Milk
© » KADIST

Elad Lassry

2013

In his composition, Chocolate Bars, Eggs, Milk, Lassry’s subjects are mirrored in their surroundings (both figuratively, through the chocolate colored backdrop and the brown frame; and literally, in the milky white, polished surface of the table), as the artist plays with color, shape, and the conventions of representational art both within and outside of the photographic tradition...

Wild Boy
© » KADIST

Guy Ben-Ner

2004

Wild Boy is the story of the education of Amir, the artist’s son...

De Grote Boodschap
© » KADIST

Omer Fast

2007

This work is based on a temporal loop in which the stories of several duets coexist and interfere with each other...

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5,000 Feet
© » KADIST

Omer Fast

2011

“Watching the films of Omer Fast confounds our expectations of the medium...

A Tank Translated
© » KADIST

Omer Fast

2002

In this work, Omer Fast probes the feelings experienced by young people involved in an acts of war...

Chocolate Bars, Eggs, Milk
© » KADIST

Elad Lassry

2013

In his composition, Chocolate Bars, Eggs, Milk, Lassry’s subjects are mirrored in their surroundings (both figuratively, through the chocolate colored backdrop and the brown frame; and literally, in the milky white, polished surface of the table), as the artist plays with color, shape, and the conventions of representational art both within and outside of the photographic tradition...

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A Declaration
© » KADIST

Yael Bartana

2006

Yael Bartana’s video work A Declaration was shot in southern Tel Aviv, on the visible border between that city and Jaffa...

5,000 Feet
© » KADIST

Omer Fast

2011

“Watching the films of Omer Fast confounds our expectations of the medium...

A Tank Translated
© » KADIST

Omer Fast

2002

In this work, Omer Fast probes the feelings experienced by young people involved in an acts of war...

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Caring for the Carers: How Malaysian artists working with communities hold space
© » ARTS EQUATOR

Caring for the Carers: How Malaysian artists working with communities hold space | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints Courtesy of Syarifah Nadhirah August 12, 2021 By Rahmah Pauzi (1,300 words, 5-minute read) I had forgotten how loaded the words “how are you,” or “apa khabar,” can be...

Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel
© » SLASH PARIS

Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel — Jeanne Bucher Jaeger | Paris, Marais Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel — Jeanne Bucher Jaeger | Paris, Marais Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Antoine Grumbach — Les Yeux du Ciel Exhibition Architecture, urban art, drawing, installation.....

Myth in Motion
© » KADIST

Martha Atienza, Ana María Millán, Thao Nguyen Phan, Ana Vaz, and Connie Zheng KADIST and Sa Sa Art Projects are pleased to present Myth in Motion , an exhibition of videos from KADIST’s collection and one new video work by five international women artists...

Moving Stones
© » KADIST

With Martha Araújo, Milena Bonilla, Angelica Mesiti, Shitamichi Motoyuki and Emilija Škarnulyte Curated by Marie Martraire, director of KADIST, San Francisco Reflecting on the relationship between History and memory, the group exhibition Moving Stones focuses on the body as a site of engagement to address our collective past embodied in public monuments...

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A Declaration
© » KADIST

Yael Bartana

2006

Yael Bartana’s video work A Declaration was shot in southern Tel Aviv, on the visible border between that city and Jaffa...

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Online Event: Ana María Montenegro and Manuel Correa in conversation
© » KADIST

On the occasion of Human Rights Day, join us on Instagram live for a conversation between artists Manuel Correa and Ana María Montenegro, whose work deal with the history of violence in Colombia...

Untitled (Shuffle)
© » KADIST

Wallace Berman

1969

While Untitled (Shuffle) presents the same formal characteristics as the rest of Berman’s verifax collages, this constellation of specific images inside the radio’s frames—the Star of David, Hebrew characters, biblical animals—have Jewish symbolism and attest to the artist’s lasting obsession with the kabala...

Salomania
© » KADIST

Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz

2009

Salomania sees choreographer and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer and artist Wu Tsang rehearse scenes from Valda’s Solo , a chapter of a film Rainer made in 1972 after having seen women perform the dance of the seven veils in Alla Nazimova’s 1923 silent film Salomé ...