Silent Among Us

'Silent Among Us' is the first exhibition in St Petersburg that comprises works by leading Israeli video artists that have been shown at major world art events including the Venice Biennial, Manifesta, Documenta, Sao Paulo Biennial. All the works presented at the exhibition are shown in St Petersburg for the first time.

Israeli video art is known worldwide due to the powerful, controversial, politically engaged and visually exuberant works by Israeli artists who have had a significant impact on development of global video art in general. One can even argue that video art is some kind of trademark of the country: in recent years the Israeli pavilion at the Venice biennial, for example, has been largely represented by artists working predominantly with video.

Israeli video art is largely focused on the geo- political and socio-cultural processes and artists often touch upon the topics related to the present and the past of their country and its position in the global context. Therefore, in the works presented at the exhibition they inevitably touch upon such issue as the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine and its presence in the daily life of the people in the both countries (‘Detail’ by Avi Mograbi and ‘Pippi L. in Abu Dis’ by Rona Yefman and Tanja Schlander). Complex identity of the Israelis and influence of the country’s collective memory and cultural and historical roots on the present time are discussed in the works by Dor Guez, Dana Levy, Nurit Sharett  and Nir Evron who use a wide ranges of approaches: from anthropological perspective and unveiling the history of the country through personal stories to documenting certain (sometimes intentionally created) contexts.  

The videos by Yael Bartana and Nira Pereg depicting particular social structures and rituals address the relations within contemporary Israeli society, which, despite the small size of the country, is divided into numerous ethnic and religious communities with their own strict rules and traditions. Their interactions are sometimes aimed at separation from each other and reinterpretation and reconfiguration of the public space, which becomes the focus of the works ‘The Hug Expedition’ by Ruti Sela and ‘A Slow Walk for a Longplayer’ by Ohad Fishof who challenge the socially accepted norms of behavior in the public space. Gilad Ratman in his piece ‘Give Her Back Take Me Too’ also explores human behavior and the need for community while showing forms of resistance, and the borders of self. Exploration of the ‘self’ using her body as an instrument is what Sigalit Landau does in her classical piece ‘The Dead Sea’, a silent video that is a multilayered work about identity and national symbols, and a hypnotizing  visual experience at the same time.  

The exhibition 'Silent Among Us' is a part of the project 'Mobile Archive' in St Petersburg organized by the Creative Association of Curators TOK in partnership with the Israeli Center for Digital Art (Holon, Israel). 

The Mobile Archive is a traveling collection of Israeli video art that belongs to the Israeli Center for Digital Artand contains more than 2500 titles. The archive includes video art, sound art, film, and documentation of performances and installations that have been exhibited at the center, as well as other works by leading Israeli artists in the field of media art. Many of the works are linked thematically through questions of identity, militarism, and nationalism, as well as other sociopolitical issues relevant to the region.