«Can art do more?»
“What does art want? Everything. What can art do? Nothing. What does art do? Something” Jean Luc Godard.
Art Focus Jerusalem 2008
curated by Ami Barak and Bernard Blistène
Art Focus 5, 2008 will continue the tradition of providing a rare encounter between contemporary art in Israel and abroad and bringing acknowledgment to Israeli art in the international art scene and media, as well as further familiarizing the Israeli public with contemporary art.
Yet Jerusalem must once again offer a different kind of artistic and intellectual experience that will distinguish it from previous Art Focus events and the many biennales and art encounters worldwide.
The 5th edition of Art Focus, will take place in the ‘Pavillion’ within the Talpiot Beit Benit Congress Centre still under construction,Jerusalem, from September 24th to October 23rd, 2008.
Designed as a series of events and shows organised around contemporary creation, «Can art do more?» intends to bring together practices from multiple and diverse aesthetic and geographical horizons. Built as an open and multifaceted event, it aims to demonstrate the liveliness and diversity of contemporary art, at the time of globalisation, and to foreground the profusion of ideas and the many proposals it gives rise to. At a time when contemporary art biennales and artistic events of all kinds can be found to be more and more numerous across the world, Art Focus 2008 reasserts its longstanding tradition and wants one more time to take the context and the political and cultural situation into account. That is the reason why the programme of this edition intends to give an overview of the multiple aesthetic and critical perspectives in a context of which nobody can deny the dramatic intensity. It is impossible for Art Focus 2008 to ignore the stakes that are lying ahead : the curators of this new edition, Ami Barak and Bernard Blistène have decided to solicit an answer from artists and creators from all walks of life around the question : «Can art do more? » It is everybody’s duty to answer this question, it is also everybody’s liberty to do so.
Sixty six artists from 25 countries world wide responded to the proposal, among whom eighteen are Israeli. The Artists participating are:
Adel Abdessemed (Algeria, France) /Saâdane Afif (France, Germany) / Chantal Akerman (Belgium, France) /Jennifer Allora (United States, Puerto- Rico) & Guillermo Calzadilla (Cuba, Puerto-Rico) / Francis Alÿs(Belgium, Mexico)/ Maja Bajević (Bosnia and Herzegovina, France) / Michel Blazy (Monaco, France) /Ulla von Brandenburg (Germany, France) /Roderick Buchanan ( Scotland) /Mircea Cantor (Romania, France) /David Claerbout (Belgium) / Collective Claire Fontaine (France)/ Keren Cytter (Israel, Germany) /Matthew Day Jackson (United States)/Jeremy Deller (United Kingdom) /Stan Douglas (Canada) /Michael Drucks (Israel, United Kingdom) /Jimmie Durham (United States ,Italy) /Latifa Echakhch, (Morocco, Switzerland)/Jean-Pascal Flavien(France, Germany) /Ceal Floyer (Pakistan, Germany) / Cyprien Gaillard (France) /Ryan Gander (United Kingdom)/ Douglas Gordon (Scotland ,United States, United Kingdom, Germany) /Rodney Graham (Canada) /Loris Gréaud ( France) /Zheng Guogu (China)/Subodh Gupta ( India)/ Pierre Huyghe (France ,United States, France) /Amar Kanwar (India) /Talia Keinan (Israel) /Christoph Keller (Germany)/ Claude Lévêque ( France) /David Maljković (Croatia) /Victor Man (Romania) /Christian Marclay (United States, United Kingdom) /Chris Marker (France) /Ohad Meromi (Israel, United States) /Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania) /Bruce Nauman (United States) /Moshe Ninio (Israel) /Pier-Paolo Pasolini (Italy) /Nira Pereg (Israel) /Alexandre Perigot (France) /Dan Perjovschi (Romania) /Eli Petel (Israel) /Kirsten Pieroth (Germany) /Barak Ravitz (Israel) /Robin Rhode (South Africa, Germany) / Karen Russo(Israel,United Kingdom) /Anri Sala (Albania, Germany) /Tomas Saraceno (Argentina, Germany) /Joe Scanlan (United States)/Ariel Schlesinger (Israel, Germany) /Miri Segal (Israel)/Tino Sehgal (India, Germany) /Yann Sérandour (France)/Yoav Shmueli (Israel)/Doron Solomons(United Kingdom, Israel) /Simon Starling (United Kingdom, Denmark) / Haim Steinbach (Israel,United States) /Pascale-Marthine Tayou (Cameroon, Belgium) /Jan Tichy (Czech Republic,Israel, United States) /Na’ama Tsabar (Israel) /Sharon Ya’ari (Israel) /Rona Yefman (Israel, United States)/ Uri Zohar (Israel).
Art Focus 5 «Can art do more?» will be a crossroad of events and works from all kinds just as much as a place for talks and exchanges to be organised about what is at stake and around the possibilities opened by contemporary art. Through the bringing together of artistic proposals, the ideas of community and sharing will be underscored, as they have been expressed at different moments by modern and contemporary art. Facing an idle world, the curators insist on the necessary as well as on the possible impact of any artistic act.
The place that was chosen is the result of a deliberate choice. In a city charged with history and memory, likely to be interpreted in all kinds of ways, and a neighbourhood marked by work and commercial initiatives, the space of the ‘Pavilion’ will act as an area for encounters of the third kind, inhabited by contemporary art, a crossroad under construction in a dynamic zone, in the edge of usual contemporary art places: a multiple meeting place for multiple proposals, a turmoil of alert experiences. «Can art do more?» hopes to insist on the urgent necessity to work together and aims at being an expanse of vitality and energy first and foremost.
Art Focus 5 «Can art do more?» brings together certain works typical of the artistic utopias of the 1970s that will function as points of reference from which will be articulated the other projects of the artists invited for this edition. The extreme diversity of the projects being shaped up in the present times probably stems from a desire to multiply the critical perspectives and react against the standardisation of our contemporary world. On the other hand, the focus put by most artists on the singularities and idiosyncrasies of their histories comes from their desire to work within the specific moulds of their own culture. 21st century art is the product of the singular-declined-in-the-plural and makes improbable and vain any attempt to reduce things to one movement, even less to one common style.
So, we will go from one piece to another, from one proposal to another, with the desire to find new paths to think and articulate the stakes and the necessary utopias of our world to come. We will meet for «Can art do more?», at Art Focus 2008 in Jerusalem, between September 24th and October 23rd to multiply encounters and debates, talking and watching. «Can art do more?» will be an experience of space and time, which invites you to share it.
The artistic management of Art Focus 5: Art Focus director Dr. Noa Aviram ; Chief Curator at large at the Israel Museum Yigael Zalmona; Chief Curator at Ashdod art Museum Yona Fischer.
Art Focus has been conducted with funding and assistance provided by the Jerusalem Foundation, and produced by the Israel Festival. In cooperation with The Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport, Culture Administration, Museums and Visual Arts Department; the Department of Culture a of Jerusalem Municipality; the Division of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; The French Embassy in Israel and Bank Leumi.