Apr 23 2013
Presentation & Conversation | Gilad Ratman and Jon Kessler
Tues | 6:30Pm
The Workshop: A Presentation by 2013 Venice Biennale Artist Gilad Ratman & Conversation with Artist Jon Kessler
Co-presented by Artis & Columbia University School of the Arts
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
6:30pm: Presentation by Gilad Ratman
7:15pm: Conversation with Jon Kessler, Artist & Columbia University Professor
8:00-8:30pm: Reception
FREE and open to the public
RSVP to persis@artiscontemporary.org
Space is limited
Join Artis and Columbia University School of the Arts for a special preview by Gilad Ratman, one of the youngest artists ever chosen to represent Israel at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Ratman, who graduated from the School of the Arts Visual Arts Program (’09 SOA), will give a unique glimpse into his project, The Workshop (2013), a multi-channel site-specific installation for the Israel Pavilion at this year’s 55th Venice Biennale, opening June 1. The Workshop documents the journey of a community of people from Israel to Venice, through a non-linear presentation of video, installation, sound and a physical intervention in the fabric of the Pavilion itself. While our global political reality reflects an increase in boundaries and barriers, the project’s site-specificity reflects on the Biennale as a utopian model of national connectivity. Ratman depicts a world where transit can take place across national borders via hidden networks – free, undetected and unidentifiable.
About Gilad Ratman
Gilad Ratman (b. 1975, Israel) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Tel Aviv. His film and video installations often distort and disrupt narrative as a way to examine the friction between the real and the imaginary. Ratman received a B.F.A. at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem and the School of Visual Arts, New York; and an M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts, New York. His work has been exhibited internationally at MoMA/P.S.1, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; and the Video Art Festival, Beijing, among other institutions. Ratman is the recipient of multiple project grants from Artis, including a scholarship through Artis’ Israeli Artist Fund at Columbia University. He is represented by Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv.
About Jon Kessler
Jon Kessler’s work explores the connection between bodily movement and technical
apparatus, often deploying mechanisms and video to facilitate this relationship. He has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Phoenix Kulturstiftung; Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg, Germany; the Louisiana Museum of Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark; and most recently, the Fisher Landau Center for Art, New York. Kessler has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship as well as honors from the Foundation of the Performing Arts; he is a Professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Visual Arts Program.
In 2003, Professor Jon Kessler founded the Israel Artists Fund at Columbia University, with lead support from Artis, to facilitate scholarship funding for accepted MFA students in the Visual Arts Program. Past and current Israel Artists Fund Fellows include: Guy Ben-Ner (’03); Mika Rottenberg (’04), Ohad Meromi (’04), Miki Carmi (’05), Yoav Horesh (’05), Tamy Ben-Tor (’06), Daniel Bauer (’06), Uri Aran (’07), Oz Malul (’08), Einat Amir (’09), Gilad Ratman (’09), Rona Yefman (’09), Naama Tsabar (’10), Lior Shvil (’10), Inbal Abergil (’11), Ariel Schlesinger (current student), Shahar Yahalom (current student), and Ben Hagari (current student).
About Artis
Artis is an independent nonprofit organization that broadens international awareness and understanding of contemporary art from Israel, and provides important resources, programs and platforms for artists and art professionals to develop lasting partnerships with the global art community. Founded in 2004, Artis is based in New York with outposts in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. Our activities include: public programs; a grant and scholarship program; cultural research trips to Israel for art professionals and collectors; and professional development initiatives. Artis aims to ensure a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the great diversity and excellence of art coming from Israel, and to be a key partner in facilitating cross-cultural dialogue that transcends stereotypes, misconceptions and geopolitics.