Gilad Ratman, The Workshop (still), 2013. Video.
Israeli Pavilion
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Gilad Ratman
1 June–24 November 2013
Pavilion of Israel
Giardini della Biennale
Venice
www.bravermangallery.com/ratman-biennale
Gilad Ratman has been selected to present The Workshop (2013), a multi-channel site-specific installation at the Israeli Pavilion at this year’s 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Commissioned by the Israel Ministry for Culture and Sport, Ratman is one of the youngest artists ever to be chosen to represent the Israeli Pavilion.
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Ratman works primarily with video and installation, often distorting and disrupting narrative as a way to examine the friction between the real and imaginary. The opposition between universal patterns of human behaviour—as defined through language, nationality, government or other kinds of representation—is a key concern in Ratman’s work, expressed through gestures that draw attention to resistance and struggle.
The Workshop (2013) 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.
The Workshop’s site-specificity reflects on the Biennale as a utopian model of nations’ connectivity. Ratman shows a world where transit can take place across national borders in hidden networks—free, undetected and unidentified. For this—operating in small communities in a utopian, pre-social and even pre-linguistic stage, as the ones recurrent in Ratman’s work—is essential.
Gilad Ratman
Gilad Ratman was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1975, and studied at the Bezalel Academy for Art and Design (BFA), Jerusalem, and then at Columbia University (MFA), New York. Gilad is a professor at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Solo exhibitions have included Ferenbalm-Gurbü Station, Karlsruhe (2011); Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv (2010); and the Haifa Museum of Art (2009). Group exhibitions have included Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2011); Bass Musuem of Art, Miami Beach (2012); Herzliya Contemporary Art Biennial, Herzliya, Israel (2011); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2011); the Garage Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2010); Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, (2010); Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2010); and Dallas Contemporary Art Center (2010).
Ratman has been awarded the Anslem Kiefer Prize by the Wolf Foundation (2011); Art Matters Grant (2010); Jerome Foundation (2010); The Ministry of Culture “Young Artist” Prize (2007) and the Givon Prize of Tel Aviv Museum (2005).
Ratman’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv; Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa; and American University Museum, Washington DC.
Gilad Ratman lives in Tel Aviv.
Gilad Ratman is represented by Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv.
Curator and commissioners
The Workshop (2013) is curated by Sergio Edelsztein, Director and Chief Curator, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv.
The Pavilion of Israel is realized under the auspices of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Sport, Israel.
International press contact:
Olivia Cerio and Richard Scott
Scott & Co
T +44 20 3487 0077
olivia@scott-andco.com
richard@scott-andco.com
www.scott-andco.com
Credits
Main Donors – Artis Contemporary Israeli Art Fund, Ronny Douek, Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund, Ostrovsky Family Fund, Outset contemporary art Fund, Leslie and Russ Robinson
Supporters – Art Partners Foundation, Nancy Berman and Alan Bloch and The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Mati Broudo, Irit and Jonathan Kolber, Israeli Lottery council for culture and art, Leon Koffler and Rachelli Mishori, Lauren & Mitchell Presser, Lenny Recanati
Additional support – Aspect Ratio Gallery, Des Moines Art Center, Rachel and David Grund, Susie Karkomi and Marvin Leavitt, Gili Mezzan and Yossi Morgenstern, Itay Strum
