Miki Kratsman
28 Jan - 03 Jun 2012
© Miki Kratsman
Territory 3002-6, 2005
B/W photograph
90 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv
Territory 3002-6, 2005
B/W photograph
90 x 90 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv
MIKI KRATSMAN
AS IT IS. On Miki Kratsman's Photography
Curator: Octavio Zaya
Coordination: Cynthia González García
28 January - 3 June, 2012
Miki Kratsman's work documents the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences in the daily lives of the civilian population, marked by oppression for decades. Thanks to his work as a photojournalist for the past twenty years, Kratsman had privileged access to locations usually inaccessible to Israelis and unknown to the international media. What we have here is an overview of the occupation, the consequences of a devastated reality–a territory destroyed, abandoned or razed buildings, and desolate fields–after which a policy of control and isolation can be recognized. However, the author does not rely on the theatrical or on easy tricks in his photography. It can be said that Kratsman does not exploit his topics, or the subjects of his topics. On the contrary, he locates us in front of the "everyday banality" of a parallel reality.
While at first his main journalistic effort was purely documentary, currently his work focuses more on capturing images of the day-to-day, to show the relationship between the inhabitants and the exceptional context of violence they live in. In other words, the daily reality of occupation systematically photographed.
For this exhibition at MUSAC a selection of photographs belonging, or not, to various series has been assembled. Thus, the Territory series brings us images of landscapes marked by displacement and destruction. The most recent, and still in process, Targeted Killing was carried out with the same type of photographic lens that the Israeli army uses in its controversial policy of the targeted killing of Palestinians. The characters photographed in this series are innocent Palestinians, despite the fact that the way in which they have been photographed gives them, in the eye of the viewer, a character of casual "suspects". Meanwhile, Wanted portrays different terrorists wanted by the Israeli army. From Kratsman's point of view, the accumulation of pictures that represent the daily routine is most important, most significant and even more disturbing than the documentation of a specific spectacular event. Thus, three slide shows feature a photographic archive of more than 4,000 images, which, along with six booklets by the artist, complete the exhibition.
Miki Kratsman was born in Argentina in 1959 and emigrated to Israel in 1971. He is in charge of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's Department of Photography in Jerusalem and his photographs regularly appear in the newspaper Haaretz. During the organization of this exhibition, Kratsman received two prestigious awards: the one awarded by the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the Emet Prize for science, art and culture, which is regarded as the most important of Israel. This is the first solo exhibition of the renowned photographer's work in a Spanish Museum, though he has shown his photographs in prestigious venues like the CCCB of Barcelona (2006), the Biennale in São Paulo (2006), the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, (2005) and the Venice Biennale (2003).
AS IT IS. On Miki Kratsman's Photography
Curator: Octavio Zaya
Coordination: Cynthia González García
28 January - 3 June, 2012
Miki Kratsman's work documents the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its consequences in the daily lives of the civilian population, marked by oppression for decades. Thanks to his work as a photojournalist for the past twenty years, Kratsman had privileged access to locations usually inaccessible to Israelis and unknown to the international media. What we have here is an overview of the occupation, the consequences of a devastated reality–a territory destroyed, abandoned or razed buildings, and desolate fields–after which a policy of control and isolation can be recognized. However, the author does not rely on the theatrical or on easy tricks in his photography. It can be said that Kratsman does not exploit his topics, or the subjects of his topics. On the contrary, he locates us in front of the "everyday banality" of a parallel reality.
While at first his main journalistic effort was purely documentary, currently his work focuses more on capturing images of the day-to-day, to show the relationship between the inhabitants and the exceptional context of violence they live in. In other words, the daily reality of occupation systematically photographed.
For this exhibition at MUSAC a selection of photographs belonging, or not, to various series has been assembled. Thus, the Territory series brings us images of landscapes marked by displacement and destruction. The most recent, and still in process, Targeted Killing was carried out with the same type of photographic lens that the Israeli army uses in its controversial policy of the targeted killing of Palestinians. The characters photographed in this series are innocent Palestinians, despite the fact that the way in which they have been photographed gives them, in the eye of the viewer, a character of casual "suspects". Meanwhile, Wanted portrays different terrorists wanted by the Israeli army. From Kratsman's point of view, the accumulation of pictures that represent the daily routine is most important, most significant and even more disturbing than the documentation of a specific spectacular event. Thus, three slide shows feature a photographic archive of more than 4,000 images, which, along with six booklets by the artist, complete the exhibition.
Miki Kratsman was born in Argentina in 1959 and emigrated to Israel in 1971. He is in charge of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's Department of Photography in Jerusalem and his photographs regularly appear in the newspaper Haaretz. During the organization of this exhibition, Kratsman received two prestigious awards: the one awarded by the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the Emet Prize for science, art and culture, which is regarded as the most important of Israel. This is the first solo exhibition of the renowned photographer's work in a Spanish Museum, though he has shown his photographs in prestigious venues like the CCCB of Barcelona (2006), the Biennale in São Paulo (2006), the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, (2005) and the Venice Biennale (2003).