Tag: yael bartana

Yael Bartana at Petzel Gallery

In 22 minutes of rich visuals, Israeli artist Yael Bartana inaugurates and destroys a replica Solomon’s Temple in her captivating film ‘Inferno.’ Inspired by a version of the temple finished last summer in Sao Paulo by a religious group (built with stones imported from Israel) Bartana’s film compresses a sequence of emotions – exhilaration to horror to indifference at a distant memory – at a dizzying rate. (At Petzel Gallery through Feb 14th).

Yael Bartana, still from ‘Inferno,’ Alexa camera transferred onto HD, 22 minutes, 2013.

Yael Bartana at Petzel Gallery

“We cannot live alone.”  “We need you.” “We are sick of our own similar faces.”  These pleas and more come from the central actor in Yael Bartana’s riveting trilogy about a Polish leader who implores the over 3 million Jews who lived in Poland prior to WWII to return and transform 40 million Poles.  Here, returnees establish a Kibbutz-like compound that looks uncomfortably like a concentration camp as they sit to learn Polish words like ‘Freedom.’  (At Chelsea’s Petzel Gallery through May 4th).  

Yael Bartana, Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), one channel video and sound-installation, 16mm transferred to DVD color/sound, 10:50 min, 2007.