Nira Pereg: Screening at the Van Abbemuseum

December 14, 2009

RE-CONSTRUCTIONS: Film programme in the Activist Club

Programme 3 December:

19.00 – introduction by Galit Eilat, director Israeli Center for Digital Art
19.15 – screening of films with the theme

Re-Constructions
The video works in the Re-Constructions screening program deal with the construction of consciousness in Israeli architectural and textual space, where the violent notion of “burning into the consciousness” (a term that was introduced during the second intifada describing the purpose of the Israeli Army actions against the Palestinians as a process of burning their consciousness so that they will give up the idea of resisting the Israeli occupation) or “facts on the ground” that the Israeli politician use has entered Israeli media and public discourse, replacing expressions such as “building consciousness” or “constructing consciousness. ”Some of the video works chosen for this program deal with Re-Constructions of reality through simulation methods, methods shaping the reality of the present. In all the works, psychological borders are externalised in different degrees and made physical.

The following films will be screened on 3 December:

Avi Mograbi, Details 11-13, 2009 <11’30’’>
Yael Bartana, Wild Seeds, 2005 <6’40’’>
Nira Pereg, Sabbath, 2008 <7’30”>
Amir Yatziv, Detroit, 2009 <15’00”>
Yossi Attia en Itamar Rose, Darfur, 2008 <4’00”>
Malki Tesler, Playground, 2008 <8’00”>

Nira Pereg, Sabbath, 2008, duration 7’30”

In Sabbath 2008, Nira Pereg documents the closing of ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods in Jerusalem to automobile traffic before the Sabbath enters. The delineation of the streets creates an enclave, separate from secular lifestyle. This transitive border for 24 hours, once the barriers are erected, ensures that no cars are allowed into Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods. The city is thus topologically transformed into two cities – with and without cars. Building on this ritual, Sabbath 2008, Jerusalem, is a photographic ritual that can only be performed at a designated time and in designated places. Although the value of these somewhat rickety barriers may appear above all symbolic, their presence is a source of friction and conflict; they delineate a clear cut boundary between the sacred and the everyday.

Dec 3, 2009, 7pm

Nira Pereg