Staring Back at the Sun: Video Art from Israel, 1970-2012, is a two-night video exhibition that traces the development of contemporary video practice in Israel and highlights work by artists who take an incisive, critical perspective toward the cultural and political landscape in Israel and beyond. Staring Back at the Sun, organized by Chen Tamir, Curatorial Associate at Artis and Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, showcases 35 works by 38 artists, including early performances, films and videos never before presented outside of Israel. Divided into four historic and thematic sections, Staring Back at the Sun focuses on the activist impulse in video art-making in Israel over the last four decades.

Join us on Wednesday, March 21, at 6:00 pm, for the first night of the exhibition, curated by Ilana Tenenbaum, featuring 14 works under the heading Part 1: 1970–80—Early Experiments in Time-Based Art and 7 works under the heading Part 2: 1980–97—An Art Form Coming Into Its Own.

The second night, Thursday, March 22, features Part 3: 1997–2005—The Rise of the Medium, 6 works curated by Sergio Edelsztein, and Part 4: 2005–12—State of Amnesia: Recent Video from Israel, 8 works curated by Yael Bartana and Avi Feldman. Informed by the international history of video art, the program traces the development of the medium in Israel and explores how artists have employed technology and material to examine the sociopolitical status quo.

Avi Feldman, co-curator of Part 4: State of Amnesia—2005-2012, will introduce both nights of the exhibition and offer a Q&A following the screenings. Feldman is an independent curator and writer based in Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Dresden. He is a recipient of the 2018 Goethe-Institut New York’s curatorial residency within its MINI/Goethe-Institut Ludlow 38 program.

The work by the following artists will be shown over the two nights: Boaz Arad, Yossi Atia & Itamar Rose, Yael Bartana, Irit Batsry, Guy Ben Ner, Hila Lulu Lin Farah Kufr Birim, Michael Druks, Benni Efrat, Avraham Eilat, Nir Evron, Yair Garbuz, Gideon Gechtman, Moshe Gershuni, Tamar Getter, Dor Guez, Sigalit Landau, Raffi Lavie, Motti Mizrachi, Avi Mograbi, Michal Naaman, Joshua Neustein, Miri Nishri, Dov Or-Ner, Nira Pereg, Gilad Ratman, Roee Rosen, Buky Schwartz, Ruti Sela & Maayan Amir, Henry Shelesnyak, Ran Slavin, Doron Solomons, Micha Ullman, Rona Yefman, Dan Zakhem, Nana & Boaz Zonshine.

This event is organized in conjunction with the Tang’s presentation of This Place as well as the Tang’s series Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video, and is free and open to the public. Staring Back at the Sun is produced and circulated by Artis.