Light to the Nations, 2023

Mixed Media Installation

<p><br></p><p><em>Light to the Nations</em>  is a work created by Yael Bartana which combines different media such as sculpture, VR, and video animation, as well as a learning center. <br></p><p>It is a proposal about the attempts, dystopic and utopi

Zukunftsbewältigung (Overcoming the Future), 2023

Three channel video and sound installation, 7 min.

<p><br></p><p>In her work Overcoming the Future  Yael Bartana continues her longstanding inquiry into the human capacity for hope –a prophetic emotion based on past experiences and a prime motor of the political imagination. It is based on Bartana’s

Or La Goyim, 2023

Neon 162 x 66 cm | 63,7 x 25,9 in.

Eretz, 2023

Neon 145 × 55 cm | 57 x 21,6 in.

Chaim Hermann Steinschneider, 2021

Live performance, 51 min.

<p>In her stage performance and live recording for steirischer herbst, Yael Bartana brings to life the ghosts and disturbing fantasies of Austrian-Jewish history. Together with the actress Susanne Sachsse, Bartana conjures up the spirit of the famous

Redemption Now, 2021

Neon, 180 x 128 cm | 70,8 x 50,3 in.

Malka Germania, 2021

Three channel video and sound installation, 38 min.

<p>Malka Germania, commissioned by the Jewish Museum Berlin, investigates the longing for collective redemption as a response to an age of anxiety. <em>Malka Germania</em> is Hebrew for “Queen Germania.” The name makes reference to an unusual female

The Orphan Carousel, 2021

Memorial To The Rescuing Kindertransports of 1938 − 39, Publical memorial (permanent installation), Frankfurt, 2021

<p>In 1938 and 1939, 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria found refuge in Britain. They managed to escape, but their family members were left behind, many of them murdered in the Holocaust. Near Frankfurt’s central station, where parents a

Two Minutes To Midnight, 2021

One channel video and sound installation, 47 min.

<p>“What if women ruled the world?” Yael Bartana stages the question in her performative ‘Two Minutes to Midnight,’, where an all women government of a fictitious country must take a stand on an imminent nuclear threat from a foreign nation. A panel

CRISIS-CRYSIS-CRYCIS, 2021

Neon 140 × 200 cm | 55,1 x 78,7 in.

The Shofar School, 2020

public performance, Belgium, 2020

<p>Made from a ram's horn, the Shofar is an instrument played in different moments of the Jewish calendar by a person of high esteem in their communities. Its call is said to open up the sky. Although women are not prohibited from playing the Shofar,

Resurrection I–II, 2020

Photograph series of 2 images

<p>Yael Bartana’s photographic work "Resurrection" brings together different aesthetic traditions and presents a mutational, multilayered image that alludes to the worlds of Art History and religious mysticism. Holding a living hare and standing q

Patriarchy is History, 2019

Neon, 162 x 155cm | 63,7 x 61 in.

Four Angels (Homage to Max Adolph Warburg), 2019

Neon, 185 x 150 cm | 72,8 x 59 in.

<br><p>Four Angels by Yael Bartana is a variation to an unpublished sketch made in 1930s by Max Adolph Warburg, the son of Dr. Aby Warburg, and described as “Four Angels Freeing The Swastika from Its Hooks”. It was – as it seems – a spontaneous re

The Undertaker, 2019

One channel video and sound installation, 13 min.

<p>The film chronicles an enigmatic leader and her armed followers during a choreographed procession and burial of weapons. Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy, plays a prominent role as this group of dancers, war veterans, and activis

Memorial To Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism, 2018

Berlin, 2018

<p>The cuboid memorial, designed by Elmgreen &amp; Dragset and inaugurated in 2007, has an opening through which visitors view scenes of gay and lesbian couples kissing. Yael Bartana directed the film shown there in 2018 for the memorial’s tenth an

Monumento A La Ausencia − Absence Monument, 2018

Publical memorial (permanent installation), Mexico City, 2018

<p>Yael Bartana’s Absence Monument from 2018 is dedicated to the victims of the violent crackdowns against the student protests in Mexico City on October 2nd 1968. Footprints of 400 survivors, immortalized in cement, commemorate the people who were m

Trembling Times, 2017

Neon, 177 × 250 cm | 69.7 × 98.4 in.

What if Women Ruled the World?, 2017

Live performance, 120 min.

<p>“It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.“ (The Bulle

Tashlikh (Cast Off), 2017

One channel video and sound installation, 11 min.

<p>Yael Bartana’s ‘Tashlikh’ serves as a platform for both perpetrators and survivors of various genocides or ethnic persecutions – the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide, as well as Sudanese and Eritrean ethnic cleansing or civil wars – to confront th

What If Woman Ruled The World, 2016

Neon, 250 x 98 cm | 98,4 x 38,5 in.

I Am A Feminist, 2016

Neon, 126 x 160 cm | 49.6 x 63 in.

Simone The Hermetic, 2015

One channel sound installation, 15 min.

<div>Yael Bartana’s 'Simone the Hermetic' is a site based audio-visual installation. The work takes place in the year 3615, in which the world is marking the 1,600th anniversary of the rise of the legendary figure of Simone – a young man who miraculo

Herzl, 2015

Photograph series of 6 images

<p>Yael Bartana’s ‘Herzl' series is one of the results of a decade of dialogue with one of the most legendary figures in the history of Zionism. Author of imaginary utopias, journalist, politician and jurist, the figure of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) w

Stalag, 2014/2015

Photograph series of 4 images

<p>In Yael Bartana’s 'Stalag' the artist emphasizes her function as creator by putting herself in front of the camera for the first time. Dressed in identifiable different costumes: an Israeli soldier, an SS officer and a combination of both (while h

Black Stars Shed No Light, 2014

Neon, 170 x 150 cm 66.9 x 59.1 in

True Finn – Tosi suomalainen, 2014

One channel video and sound installation, 50 min.

<div>For her IHME Project 'True Finn' Yael Bartana invited people living in Finland to take part in creating an utopian moment. The condition was that each person has a different ethnic, religious and political background. As a result of an open call

Next Year in New Yerusalem, 2014

Neon, Ø 105 cm | 41,3 in.

<p>The phrase "Next year in Jerusalem" is recited at the end of the Passover seder and on other occasions. It expresses the prospect of redemption, as Jews and Jewesses expect to return to Jerusalem with the arrival of the Messiah. The circular shape

Pardes (Orchard), 2014

One channel video and sound installation, 71 min.

<p>In her work 'Pardes' (Orchard) Yael Bartana takes a very personal look at how Westerners seek personal enlightenment by appropriating traditional rituals: she documents the journey of her close friend Michael – an Israeli artist, who, on the one h

Zwei Minuten Stillstand, 2013

public performance, Cologne, 2013

<p>When the siren sounds on Yom Hashoah, Israel’s National Holo- caust Remembrance Day, everyone stands in silence. The whole country grinds to a halt. This act of commemoration inspired Yael Bartana’s contribution to the 2013 Impulse Theater Festiva

Inferno, 2013

One channel video and sound installation, 22 min.

<p>The starting point of 'Inferno' is the construction of the third Temple of Solomon (Templo de Salmão) in São Paulo by a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal Church. Built to biblical specifications, this new temple is a replica of the first temple in Jerusal

We Shall Be Strong In Our Weakness, 2012

Neon, 100 cm x 40 cm | 39,37 in x 15,74 in.

If You Will It, It Is Not A Dream, 2012

Neon, 24,5 x 250 cm | 9,6 x 98,4 in.

JRMiP Congress, 2012

106 min.

<div>A documentation of the first con­gress of The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP), in which inter­na­tional del­e­gates addressed and tried to answer ques­tions regarding the goals and achievements of the movement. The congress was tho

And Europe Will Be Stunned / Zamach (Assassination), 2011

One channel video and sound installation, 35 min.

<p>In the third film 'Zamach' (Assassination), the final part of the trilogy, Bartana brings the dream about multinational community and the brand new Polish society to the ultimate test. The plot of the film takes place in a not too distant future,

And Europe Will Be Stunned / Mur i wieża (Wall and Tower), 2009

One channel video and sound installation, 15 min.

<p>The second film of the trilogy 'Mur i wieża' (Wall and Tower) was made in the Warsaw district of Muranów, where a new kibbutz was erected at actual scale and in the architectural style of the 1930’s. This kibbutz, constructed in the center of Wars

And Europe Will Be Stunned / Mary Koszmary (Nightmares), 2007

One channel video and sound installation, 11 min.

<p>'Mary Koszmary' (Nightmares) is the first film in the trilogy and explores a complicated set of social and political relationships among Jews, Poles and other Europeans in the age of globalization. A young activist, played here by Sławomir Sierako

And Europe Will Be Stunned, 2010

Neon, 192 x 270 cm | 75,6 x 106,2 in.

The Recorder Player from Sheikh Jarrah, 2010

One channel video and sound installation, 7:20 min.

<p>In 'The Recorder Player from Sheikh Jarrah' the protagonist is doing away with uniform and rows of people. A recorder player in her hands, she succeeds in sending out a convinced image even if the camera captures some undisclosed and slight inner

Entartete Kunst Lebt, 2010

Animation, 16mm film and sound installation, 5 min.

<p>When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they regarded Otto Dix as a degenerate artist and had him sacked from his post as an art teacher at the Dresden Academy. He later moved to Lake Constance in the south west of Germany. Dix's paintings The Tr

The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection, 2008

Black and white photograph series of 22 images

<p>For the series of black and white photographs ‘The Missing Negatives of the Sonnenfeld Collection’, Bartana selected photographs from the extensive archive of legendary photo journalists Leni and Herbert Sonnenfeld, who documented Palestine / Eret

Summer Camp / Awodah, 2007

Two channel video and sound installation, 12 min.

<p>'Summer Camp' shows the activities of 'The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions' (ICAHD); their actions consist amongst others of rebuilding Palestinian houses in the occupied territories. In the summer of 2006 Bartana filmed a group of ICA

A Declaration, 2006

One channel video and sound installation, 7:30 min.

<p>'A Declaration' takes place in the southern seashore of Tel Aviv, on the invisible border between that city and Jaffa. The Israeli flag waves on 'Andromeda’s Rock', which alludes to the Greek mythological figure sacrificed by her parents to save t

Wild Seeds, 2005

Two channel video and sound installation, 6:40 min.

<p>'Wild Seeds' focuses on a group of youths in the middle of a barren West Bank mountain landscape. The group is simulating the 'evacuation of the Gilad settlement' in the form of a game. The game was developed by Israeli activists and is based upon

Sirens’ Song, 2005

One channel video and sound installation, 4 min.

<p>'Sirens’ Song' starts at the beach, people are swimming and surfing in the ocean. The camera's perspective changes and becomes level with a stone bollard that stands in front of a busy street. A military march can be heard, the music slowly grows

Odds and Ends, 2005

One channel video and sound installation, 4 min.

<p>'Odds and Ends' invades the space of a shopping center – big, loud, pink. It is a meditation on consumerism and a narrative about individuals caught up in a process that mostly exceeds their will and control. Sometimes shot from above, there are a

Short Memory, 2004

One channel video and sound installation, 1 min.

<p>A collaboration between Yael Bartana and Gregg Smith. A telephone conversation is overheard between two friends. They recall going bird watching in the Negev desert. Their conversation is heard over a sequence of stills from the Negev Brigade Memo

You Could Be Lucky, 2004

One channel video and sound installation, 7:30 min.

<p>'You Could Be Lucky' sets its sights on England's biggest steeplechase race, the Grand National in Aintree. Yet, rather than turning the spotlight on the horses participating in the competition, Bartana focuses on the spectators cavorting at the r

Low Relief II, 2004

Four channel video and sound installation, 5:40 min.

<p>'Low Relief II' documents an example of civil demonstration, in protest against the wrongs caused by the building of the 'separation fence' (the term coined by the authorities). It also provides a record of the exertion of increased military power

Freedom Border, 2003

One channel video installation, 3 min.

<p>'Freedom Border' depicts the launching and flight of a small blimp, with cameras installed on its underside, which monitors the nation’s borders. The buoyancy of the blimp seems at odds with its ominous function — indeed, as it turns it momentaril

Ad de’lo Yoda, 2003

One channel video installation, 3 min.

<p>'Ad de'lo Yoda' captures a traditional Jewish parade through a crack in a door. Positioning the viewer as an outsider to the celebrations, dancing and colorful costumes are glimpsed momentarily as participants move past the camera. Rather than att

When Adar Enters, 2003

One channels video and sound installation, 7 min.

<p>'When Adar Enters' opens with short shots of boys and girls in the streets of Bnei Brak (a religious suburb of Tel Aviv) dressed in costumes for the Purim holiday celebrations that occur during the month of Adar. The Purim holiday celebrates the r

Kings of the Hill, 2003

One channel video and sound installation, 7:30 min.

<p>'Kings of the Hill' is shot on the Mediterranean coast near Tel Aviv where SUV drivers gather to put their beloved cars through their paces on the dunes. The work is more documentary than other Bartana classics, as though the images themselves onl

Trembling Time, 2001

One channel video and sound installation, 6:20 min.

<p>'Trembling Time' depicts the moment of silence on the day commemorating those who have fallen in Israel's wars. Each year, throughout the country, sirens remind Israelis to observe the 'Soldiers Memorial Day'. The camera is directed from a bridge

Tuning, 2001

One channel video and sound installation, 2 min.

<p>'Tuning' features a young woman dressed in a suit and saluting while in the background, the music of a national anthem is playing. The screened image is reflected twice and the young, saluting woman salutes to herself as a confirmation or self-sal

Profile, 2000

One channel video and sound installation, 3 min.

<p>In 'Profile' Bartana focuses on Israel's military service which is compulsory for both men and women, directing her gaze at shooting drills. Just as concentrated as the young women aiming their guns at a target, the camera captures the profile of