Guy Ben-Ner
27 Jan - 03 Mar 2012
GUY BEN-NER
New Works
27 January - 3 March, 2012
Konrad Fischer Galerie Berlin is pleased to announce an exhibition with new works
of the Israelian artist Guy Ben-Ner. We will show the film ‚Drop the Monkey’ (2009) and for the first time ever present Ben-Ner’s latest work ,Foreign Names’ (2012).
‚Foreign Names’ employs the candid camera. Shooting without permission, the artist records a poem/manifesto in the Israeli coffee-shop firm ,Aroma', in more than 100 different branches. ,Aroma' has replaced the waiters with a microphone, calling the costumers by their names to approach and take their order. Ben-Ner gives different ,foreign' names that compose, when edited together, a poem, which is a challenge by the workers to their boss, but also a sad song regarding the disappearance of the waiters. The entire sound of the work is stolen by the artist from the company’s microphones.
‚Drop the Monkey’ (2009) documents 25 trips of the artist between Tel Aviv and Berlin over the course of a year, living in one city with his girlfriend in another. Creating a performance as film, the artist films and edits in-camera an ongoing phone conversation with himself as his life unfolds. Unlike a regular film, which is edited externally after all of the shooting is complete, Ben-Ner’s film never leaves the camera during a twelve-month period. The film always remains awaiting the next shot, which might take place in either Israel or Germany. Since the only editing is done entirely in-camera, the move from one shot to the next requires a real physical move: the camera traveling the full distance from Tel Aviv to Berlin and back as the dialogue progresses. Shot in Hebrew, and dubbed in English, the film presents a conversation in rhyme, which discusses how art can be at the service of life and the repercussions of such a unified relationship.
New Works
27 January - 3 March, 2012
Konrad Fischer Galerie Berlin is pleased to announce an exhibition with new works
of the Israelian artist Guy Ben-Ner. We will show the film ‚Drop the Monkey’ (2009) and for the first time ever present Ben-Ner’s latest work ,Foreign Names’ (2012).
‚Foreign Names’ employs the candid camera. Shooting without permission, the artist records a poem/manifesto in the Israeli coffee-shop firm ,Aroma', in more than 100 different branches. ,Aroma' has replaced the waiters with a microphone, calling the costumers by their names to approach and take their order. Ben-Ner gives different ,foreign' names that compose, when edited together, a poem, which is a challenge by the workers to their boss, but also a sad song regarding the disappearance of the waiters. The entire sound of the work is stolen by the artist from the company’s microphones.
‚Drop the Monkey’ (2009) documents 25 trips of the artist between Tel Aviv and Berlin over the course of a year, living in one city with his girlfriend in another. Creating a performance as film, the artist films and edits in-camera an ongoing phone conversation with himself as his life unfolds. Unlike a regular film, which is edited externally after all of the shooting is complete, Ben-Ner’s film never leaves the camera during a twelve-month period. The film always remains awaiting the next shot, which might take place in either Israel or Germany. Since the only editing is done entirely in-camera, the move from one shot to the next requires a real physical move: the camera traveling the full distance from Tel Aviv to Berlin and back as the dialogue progresses. Shot in Hebrew, and dubbed in English, the film presents a conversation in rhyme, which discusses how art can be at the service of life and the repercussions of such a unified relationship.