Yael Bartana

This work is inspired by the Jewish ritual of »Tashlich«, for which pockets and clothes are shaken out on the banks of rivers or the shores of lakes or oceans to ask for forgiveness of sins. Bartana extends this ritual of a symbolic disposal of objects for personal spiritual cleansing to a collective, historical (sub)conscious: soldiers’ coats, bibles, glasses or menorah stand for personal histories and social structures that have to be overcome in order to free oneself.

The screening takes place at Zeughauskino im Deutschen Historischen Museum from 27.10.-10.11., daily 4–6 pm.

Image: Yael Bartana, Tashlikh, 2017, video still, courtesy of Capitain Petzel Gallery, Berlin; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; Galleria Rafaella Cortese, Milan

In the video created in 2001 we see a young woman in a suit saluting the sound of the US national anthem. But the hand wants something different than the mind. This reveals an automatism that can hardly be controlled: An embodied resistance against a well-trained ritual.

Courtesy of Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

In the video created in 2000, we see the movements of a young Israeli soldier: the camera is following the movements of her hands and eyes. We do not know how, why or what she is shooting at, we only see her firing. The camera does not inquire about the soldier’s motives or convictions, instead it simply records the almost ritual movements.

Courtesy of Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv