Yael Bartana: Three Works

The MIT List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Yael Bartana: Three Works, which will be on view from October 7 through December 31, 2004. This solo exhibition by Israeli artist Yael Bartana includes 3 short works, When Adar Enters (2004), Kings of the Hill (2003), and Ad De'lo Yoda (2003). Bartana often focuses on the activities and rituals of everyday life in Israel. She is particularly interested in rituals that may be unfamiliar to an international audience, and in uncovering the underlying themes within them. The exhibition is organized by Jane Farver, Director of the List Visual Arts Center. The opening reception will be on Thursday, October 7 from 5:30 to 7:30PM.

Bartana shot When Adar Enters in March 2003 in the orthodox district of Israel's Jerusalem and Bnei-Brak during the holiday of Purim, an annual celebration during the month of Adar (around the month of March). The Festival of Purim commemorates a victory over oppression as recounted in the Megillah, the scroll of the story of Esther; and people celebrate Purim with prizes, noisemakers, costumes, and treats. Here children dress in a variety costumes from Biblical and contemporary history that reveal the story of Israel's national self-understanding. Bartana's Kings of the Hill is a single-screen video installation based on a time-honored children's game of the same name. Men in four-wheel drive conveyances converge on the dusty coastal hills outside Tel Aviv, and in a show of macho prowess attempt to scale the most precipitous slopes in their monster sports utility vehicles. Not overtly political, Kings of the Hill does resonate with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her Ad De'lo Yoda (2003) depicts a solitary young man watching as others celebrate Purim.

About the artist Yael Bartana was born in 1970 in Afula, Israel; she currently lives and works in Israel and the Netherlands. She received a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and she participated in Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Bartana has had solo exhibitions at the Modern Art Oxford, BüroFriedrich in Berlin, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, and many other venues. Her work has also been exhibited in such venues as the Tate Modern, De Appel Foundation, the 2004 Liverpool Biennial, Kunstwerke-Berlin, the 2002 Manifesta 4 European Biennial, and the MIT List Visual Arts Center. She has also participated in numerous film/video festivals, including Transmediale 2003, an international media art festival in Berlin.

Yael Bartana: Three Works is made possible by the generous support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Council for Arts at MIT.

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Yael Bartana: Three Works