RE-DIRECTING: EAST. Conversations # 4
High & Low Bureau (Yael Messer, Gilad Reich; Israel)
Spaces of non-compliance. Re-thinking citizenship in contemporary Israeli art

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 6 p.m., CCA's Laboratory Building
The presentations are held in English.

RE-DIRECTING: EAST. Conversations # 4 High & Low Bureau from CSW TV.

High & Low Bureau: Spaces of non-compliance. Re-thinking citizenship in contemporary Israeli art

In their presentation, High & Low Bureau (Yael Messer & Gilad Reich) will look into artistic practices that challenge notions of territory, belonging and civil participation in the Israeli public sphere. They will discuss the relationship between artists and the nation-state, as they been manifested in public space since the 1970s, through a number of case studies, such as works by Michael Druks, Rafat Hatab and Nira Pereg.
These Israeli and Palestinian artists apply various tactics in order to trace, create and imagine alternative narratives to the official narrative provided by the Zionist ideology. In addition, High & Low Bureau will emphasize their position as both insiders and outsiders to the Israeli art scene, and their interest in questions of personal and collective responsibility. The presentation will end with a short talk about their current exhibition Time/Resistance, taking place these days at The Israeli Center for Digital art (Holon, Israel) and the ways it relates to the discussed issues.
 

High & Low Bureau is a curatorial duo comprised of Yael Messer and Gilad Reich. They curate exhibitions, film programs, performative events and publications, collaborate with artists, art institutions, festivals and fellow curators, employ multiple disciplines, media, and modes of artistic expression. Their projects derive from different social and political spheres in which art is produced and operates. They are interested in latent power relations that construct specific forms of existence and in the role of art in articulating, symbolising, and imagining alternative ways of being in the world. www.hlbureau.org

Yael Messer is an independent curator. She holds a postgraduate diploma in curating from Goldsmith College, London and has participated in the De Appel curatorial programme, Amsterdam. Messer has been collaborating internationally with museums, institutions and independent art spaces. Messer is the recipient of the 2013 Artis grant for her curatorial collaboration with the 13th Istanbul Biennial.

Gilad Reich is a writer, researcher and curator. Reich holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and Philosophy from Tel-Aviv University and a Research Master’s degree in Cultural Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. He has published numerous articles on Israeli culture, as well as exhibition texts and essays.