Guest Post By Salomé Lindenberg
We are oh so lucky to have Salomé has a new contributor for the Bubblist. Salomé is a young Belgian woman,graduated in contemporary art history and in cultural management. She interned and worked for some of the most prestigious institutions in the art world such as Christie’s, and now she is digging into the Tel Aviv art scene with a brand new fresh look.
Even if this exhibition is not in Tel Aviv, it just takes two “precious” hours of your time to catch the bus 19 or 125 ,and less than 40 minutes to arrive at the MOBY Museum of Bat Yam, for the Ruti Sela new exhibition. The show started on the third of March, and will end on May 7th. So, stop thinking and hurry up!
Ruti Sela was born in 1974 in Jerusalem. She graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (Jerusalem), and from Art and Design at the Midrasha Art School. She is currently working in Tel Aviv, and as a teacher of Art and videos at Haifa University, but also at the Avni Institute. In 2009, she received the Price of “The Best Artist” from the Israeli Ministry, and won the Anselm Kiefer Price of the Wolf Foundation. Her work has been presented in many international exhibitions such as the Biennale of Sydney, the Biennale of Istanbul, and the Manifesta 8, the European Biennale of Contemporary Art, in Murcia, Spain. She was also presented in 2010 at the Berlin Biennale and by other institutions as le Centre Pompidouand the Jeu de Paume in Paris, at the Art In General in New York, and at the TPW in Toronto.
When I entered the hall, I found myself in a big open space with nine videos reverberating all together, I was alone in the museum, and surrounded by all that noise, I didn’t know where to start my visit. Following my instinct, I decided to go upstairs and start my experience in a little corner where I could contemplate quietly one of the videos, “El Palabrero”. In this video, Ruti Sela’s father is questioning Ruti’s place behind the camera, questioning the objectivity of her work. It was actually, the best video to start with. Finally in the subject, I felt more adventurous to start watching all the videos in the row.
Ruti Sela tries to be as much objective as she can, even if the topics that appear in her videos are complicated, she always reaches to insert them in a playfully and spontaneous way. The result is not mere coincidence; Sela knows how to operate without taking too much room in the discussion and it might be because of that, the protagonist is taking advantage of the situation to fell comfortable enough to give his point of view without any shame.
The topics that Ruti Sela stages are about authority, sex, and army. They are all influencing each other. One topic affect the other and vice versa. Through her work she is questioning the Israeli society and identity.
After 1:30 of viewing, I left the Museum and got back to Tel Aviv, with a new image on the complexity of Israeli society. Ruti Sela’s video, even if they are simple and easy to watch show a new point of view, which arise a lot of questions.
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