Assaf Gruber: Transient Witness
CCA 鈥� Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv is pleased to announce 鈥淭ransient Witness鈥� a solo exhibition by Assaf Gruber (*1980, Jerusalem; lives and works in Berlin). Gruber鈥檚 films and sculptures deal with the interplay between the ideologies of individuals and their personal biographies; in his practice, he investigates the way in which such interplay shapes and influences private and public spheres. Often using black humor, but with an affectionate touch, both towards art history and his protagonists, Gruber鈥檚 artworks inspect how the political orientation of institutions impact the lives of individuals and how biographies both disguise and disclose inherited ideologies.
His solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv premieres Transient Witness, a two-part video, whose main 鈥榩rotagonist鈥� is the avant-garde art collection of Egidio Marzona, which comprises nearly 1.5 million items, including some of the most canonic artworks of the 20th century by artists such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and El Lissitzky 鈥� whose work is a prime source of inspiration in Gruber鈥檚 practice.
Structured into two parts 鈥� Deprived Witness and Rude Witness 鈥� Transient Witness explores the common features and necessary distinctions between art collections, archives, as well as the various materials and cultural substrata that enable their existence; in doing so, the work narrates the transfer of the objects from the private house of the collector in Berlin to their new domicile 鈥� the Japanisches Palais, a Rococo building part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden 鈥� through the eyes of three main characters: Christina, the manager of the collection; Maurizio, the art mover who comes to collect the works; and Pr盲sens, the collector鈥檚 dog. Christina and Maurizio鈥檚 perspectives represent the human entanglements, desires, frustrations, and excitements generated by the intimate encounter with valuable objects, whereas Pr盲sens鈥檚 position tells the story, 鈥榓s is鈥�; in other words, it depicts a reality in which values and morals change and in which the attention simply cannot be put only on an aesthetically seductive works of art.
鈥淎ssaf Gruber: Transient Witness鈥� is co-curated by Stefan Aue, Marcelo Rezende, and Pieter Vermeulen.
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CCA 鈥� Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv is pleased to announce 鈥淭ransient Witness鈥� a solo exhibition by Assaf Gruber (*1980, Jerusalem; lives and works in Berlin). Gruber鈥檚 films and sculptures deal with the interplay between the ideologies of individuals and their personal biographies; in his practice, he investigates the way in which such interplay shapes and influences private and public spheres. Often using black humor, but with an affectionate touch, both towards art history and his protagonists, Gruber鈥檚 artworks inspect how the political orientation of institutions impact the lives of individuals and how biographies both disguise and disclose inherited ideologies.
His solo exhibition at CCA Tel Aviv premieres Transient Witness, a two-part video, whose main 鈥榩rotagonist鈥� is the avant-garde art collection of Egidio Marzona, which comprises nearly 1.5 million items, including some of the most canonic artworks of the 20th century by artists such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and El Lissitzky 鈥� whose work is a prime source of inspiration in Gruber鈥檚 practice.
Structured into two parts 鈥� Deprived Witness and Rude Witness 鈥� Transient Witness explores the common features and necessary distinctions between art collections, archives, as well as the various materials and cultural substrata that enable their existence; in doing so, the work narrates the transfer of the objects from the private house of the collector in Berlin to their new domicile 鈥� the Japanisches Palais, a Rococo building part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden 鈥� through the eyes of three main characters: Christina, the manager of the collection; Maurizio, the art mover who comes to collect the works; and Pr盲sens, the collector鈥檚 dog. Christina and Maurizio鈥檚 perspectives represent the human entanglements, desires, frustrations, and excitements generated by the intimate encounter with valuable objects, whereas Pr盲sens鈥檚 position tells the story, 鈥榓s is鈥�; in other words, it depicts a reality in which values and morals change and in which the attention simply cannot be put only on an aesthetically seductive works of art.
鈥淎ssaf Gruber: Transient Witness鈥� is co-curated by Stefan Aue, Marcelo Rezende, and Pieter Vermeulen.
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