Yael Bartana (*1970 in Israel, lives in Amsterdam and Berlin) is considered one of the most important international film artists of her generation. Her films, photographs, objects, neon works and performances link the past and the present to develop a speculative future. Since the early 2000s, Yael Bartana has been exploring themes such as national identity and religious tradition, collective trauma and the longing for redemption, patriarchal power structures and promises of salvation. Ultimately, her work always deals with the question of how we want and can live together meaningfully in the future, given the burden of a shared past that has shaped us differently.
The selection of works by Utopia Now! in the Weserburg Museum for Modern Art includes film installations and neon works from the last five years, as well as the world premiere of Bartana's latest film and a neon created for Bremen. However, the artist is not interested in dealing with or even resolving German guilt. Rather, in Utopia Now!, a look into the past is the starting point for developing visions for a possible future from the circumstances of the present - visions that go beyond national borders.
Yael Bartana is currently a fellow at the Villa Massimo in Rome and will be exhibiting in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale from April 2024 (together with director Ersan Mondtag). Her works can be found in collections such as the MoMA New York, the Guggenheim Museum New York, the Tate Modern London, the Van Abbemuseum Rotterdam, the Centre Pompidou Paris and many more. She has had solo exhibitions at the Jewish Museum, Berlin (2021), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2018), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2015), the Vienna Secession (2012), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2012), Moderna Museet, Malmö (2010) and MoMA PS1, New York (2008).
Curated by Janneke de Vries.
