Agenda
Secondary Witness at International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn
Avi Mograbi, Z32, 2008, 35mm Color Video, 82 min
Secondary Witness is curated by Maayan Sheleff, recipient of International Studio and Curatorial Program's 2012 Curator Award, which offers the opportunity for a curator or curatorial collective to present a new group exhibition. This award was established in 2009 for participants in selected curatorial studies programs, as a response to the lack of opportunities for emerging curators to present institutional exhibitions in New York City.
The video works in Secondary Witness touch upon the notion of testimony and explore the artist's position as mediator. Various personal stories are presented in the included works, which reflect societies in a constant state of conflict and trauma. The artists in Secondary Witness, natives to countries of conflict, examine their place as secondary witnesses and their relationship to protagonists and their testimonies.
The subjective, performative and poetic testimonies reflect an abandonment of the need to represent the real, and an attempt to construct a new reality, as a critical act. With many moments of humor and grace, they reject the commonly accepted notion of truth, question definitions of victim versus perpetrator, and challenge preconceptions. The undermining of the customary power relations between documenter and documented, with regard for the resulting internal contradictions and complexities, is a call to alter the existing balance of powers between strong and weak, heard and silenced. It calls upon the viewer, as a third witness, to add their own memories and experiences, to reconsider his/her passive position in power relations, and to take a more active position in their realignment.
A publication with a newly commissioned text by Maayan Sheleff will be available.
Saturday, June 30th, 3-5pm: The Agency at Independent Curators International
401 Broadway, Suite 1620, New York, NY 10013
Speakers will engage with the idea of "the agency" through various projects, debating the possibility of art as a vehicle for social change, and the shift in the roles of both artist and curator on the border between art and activism. Participants include Maayan Sheleff and Chelsea Haines, Public Programs Manager, ICI, amongst others.
About the curator
Maayan Sheleff is a Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, and assistant Director and faculty at the international Curatorial Studies Program of the Kibbutzim College of Education and the CCA. In recent years she curated many exhibitions and projects in various institutions and in the public sphere, among them she was co- curator of ARTLV- the 1st Tel- Aviv- Yaffo Biennial (2009).
The video works in Secondary Witness touch upon the notion of testimony and explore the artist's position as mediator. Various personal stories are presented in the included works, which reflect societies in a constant state of conflict and trauma. The artists in Secondary Witness, natives to countries of conflict, examine their place as secondary witnesses and their relationship to protagonists and their testimonies.
The subjective, performative and poetic testimonies reflect an abandonment of the need to represent the real, and an attempt to construct a new reality, as a critical act. With many moments of humor and grace, they reject the commonly accepted notion of truth, question definitions of victim versus perpetrator, and challenge preconceptions. The undermining of the customary power relations between documenter and documented, with regard for the resulting internal contradictions and complexities, is a call to alter the existing balance of powers between strong and weak, heard and silenced. It calls upon the viewer, as a third witness, to add their own memories and experiences, to reconsider his/her passive position in power relations, and to take a more active position in their realignment.
A publication with a newly commissioned text by Maayan Sheleff will be available.
Saturday, June 30th, 3-5pm: The Agency at Independent Curators International
401 Broadway, Suite 1620, New York, NY 10013
Speakers will engage with the idea of "the agency" through various projects, debating the possibility of art as a vehicle for social change, and the shift in the roles of both artist and curator on the border between art and activism. Participants include Maayan Sheleff and Chelsea Haines, Public Programs Manager, ICI, amongst others.
About the curator
Maayan Sheleff is a Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, and assistant Director and faculty at the international Curatorial Studies Program of the Kibbutzim College of Education and the CCA. In recent years she curated many exhibitions and projects in various institutions and in the public sphere, among them she was co- curator of ARTLV- the 1st Tel- Aviv- Yaffo Biennial (2009).
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