A group of young Israelis have devised a strange game: Two players act out the role of the police or other representatives of state authority, while the others use their bodies to form a tight knot; the ”police” then try to extract individuals from this mass. The game imitates familiar images of evacuations of Jewish settlements by the state authorities and the resistance of the settlers to the evacuation. The work depicts this seemingly cheerful and carefree game against a breathtaking scenic backdrop. Yet when we see the English translation of the game’s Hebrew dialogue in a second projection, the game turns into a parable of the Israeli occupation of those territories, which hide in the overwhelming landscape: ”A Jew does not deport another Jew”; ”We have a plan to conquer this land”; ”You are in the middle, you’re safe.” Suddenly, the playful bickering becomes a threatening existential confrontation.
Bartana finds one of the fundamental questions of her work--when does the private human body become a political, public body?--in situations where individuals are engaged in militaristic, religious, cultural, or consumerist rituals.
Also found on the program, ”Tribal Fire,” curated by Eyal Danon. Works in this selection offer a trek along an imaginary time-line that stretches between re-enacting and pre-enacting, between re-visiting and speculating. The artists allow us to visit past events through their re-enactments or speculate on future events by pre-enacting them. Presented at Estampa Art Fair, Madrid, 2008.
Catalogue No. 545
File: Hilchot Shchenim #C
Catalogue No. 706
File: Bartana, Yael
Catalogue No. 935
File: Bartana, Yael
Catalogue No. 1126
File: Compilations
Catalogue No. 489
File: Bartana, Yael
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