Amir Yatziv(Israel/1972) lives and works in Tel-Aviv and Berlin.
I am interested in the actions of a journalist, historian, or amateur director, who collects shreds of stories, asks questions and picks up pieces of information and colorful details, only to go back to the story and memory and act within them as a sort of double agent, in an attempt to illustrate something concealed or repressed, thereby creating a critical and at once poetic experience. My starting points are mostly a testimony, its interpretation, and the attempt to present both simultaneously without a conflict. In this respect, the performative aspect of languages is important for me as a tool to mediate the testimony. Integrating the virtual sphere in my work enables me to try and produce a fictional culture out of the testimony. I want the viewer to be carried away by the story, but at the same time remain suspicious of every element in it, as an action within an oppositional tradition of deconstructing and reconstructing representation. Despite my attraction to emotionally charged subjects, it is important for me to avoid any definite and ultimate interpretation of my work. I try to introduce myself – my position with all that it “represents” – into what is narrated by the work, as a kind of reflection on what we consider to be real. In other words, I try to produce a testimonial of time and culture using representations of both the real and the fictive. Solo exhibition: This is Jerusalem Mr. Pasolini, Petah Tikva Museum of Art, Israel (2013), This is Jerusalem Mr. Pasolini, Galleria Laveronica, Modica, Italy (2012), Antipodes, Ramat-Gan Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv (2010).
Group exhibitions (selected): Too early, too late. Middle east and modernity, curated by Marco Scotini, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna (2015), Space Oddity, A capsule exhibition, Kunsteverein Nürnberg, Germany (2014), La guerra che verrà non è la prima, 1914 – 2014, MaRT, Rovereto (2014), Recalculating Route, 4 Mediations Biennale, Poznan (2014), CounterIntelligence, Hart House, curated by Charles Stankievech, University of Toronto, Canada (2014), Time Pieces, Nordstern Videokunstzentrum, curated by Marius Babias and Kathrin Becker, Gelsenkirchen, Germany (2014), Measure for Measure, curated by Drorit gur-arie and Hila Cohen-Schneiderman, Petah Tikva Museum of Art, Israel (2014), Give Us The Future, curated by Frank Wagner, n.b.k Berlin, Germany (2014), Artists‘ Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2014), Multiplicity, NURTUREart, curated by Marco antonini and Hila Cohen- Schneiderman, NY, USA (2014), The Israeli Video and Art Experimental Film Competition.