Joshua Simon (; born 1979, Tel Aviv) is a curator, writer, publisher, cultural critic, poet, filmmaker and public intellectual. He currently lives in Philadelphia. In 2024, Simon curated a seminal art project in

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

titled SLIM

Prior to that, Simon curated exhibitions in museums and art spaces in Tel Aviv-Yafo, NYC, Melbourne, London, Zürich, Vienna, Berlin, and Amsterdam, among other places. Simon is former director and chief curator a
MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, Israel
(2012- 2017), which made him the youngest museum director in the history of the country. Co-founding editor of the Tel Aviv-Yafo based Maayan (magazine), Maayan publishing together with Roy Chicky Arad. His writing has been taught among other places at the Royal College of Art London, UK,

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

Chicago, US, and the

Oslo National Academy of the Arts The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (, ''KHiO'') is a tertiary institution in Oslo, Norway, that provides education in visual arts, design and performing arts. It is one of two public institutes of higher learning in Norway that teaches in v ...

Norway.

Art

Simon began curating in his rooftop apartment which he named The Free Academy Pavilion of Art, on Jaffa Rd. 3, Tel Aviv. The debut exhibition, I Slept With

Ari Libsker Ari Libsker (; born 1972 in Haifa), is an Israeli filmmaker and journalist. He has made several documentaries. His film '' Stalags'' (2008) featured in ''The New York Times'' and won several awards. In March 2012 he curated the exhibition "Iran" ...

(2001), gained mythical stature as several artists in it went on to become prominent cultural figures in the city and worldwide, namely

Roee Rosen Roee Rosen (; born 1963) is an Israelis, Israeli multidisciplinary artist, writer and filmmaker. Biography Roee Rosen (born 1963 in Rehovot) studied philosophy and comparative literature studies in Tel Aviv University until 1984 and graduated ...

Zoya Cherkassky
and Roy Chicky Arad. Simon is signed as curator on some seminal exhibitions in the Israeli art scene and internationally. In 2004 he curated Sharon, an exhibition which is considered the first to introduced a class reading to the imagery of the Occupation. In 2007, at the age of 28, Simon curated The Rear - The First Herzliya Biennial for Contemporary Ar

which was a multi-venue art event at the Herzliya Museum of Art and in non-art spaces around the coastal city, with new works commissioned from 75 artists. That same year Simon co-curated with Maayan Strauss and Roy Chicky Arad the exhibition Doron, around a key Israeli collector Doron Sabag, and the relation of him being a key donor to museums to his business in human resources and the deteriorating workers rights in the local labor market. It has been argued that the fact that Sabag is on the board of directors of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, blocked Simon from being seriously considered for the position of chief curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art a decade late

In 2012 Simon curated together with Roy Chicky Arad and Ari Libsker the exhibition Iran in opposition to Israeli government plans to go to war with Iran. Simon headed the theory studies at the Postgraduate program, Beit Berl College, Hamidrasha School of Art, Beit Berl College, which he helped to set up (2009-2014). During his tenure at MoBY - Museums of Bat Yam, Simon initiated an international programming with group and solo-shows which traveled around the world. As director of MoBY, Simon put special emphasis on expanding outreach programs, developing funding options and facilities and cataloging the museum's collection. Simon has worked with artists, writers and curators such as

Hito Steyerl Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image visual artist, artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.Anri Sala Anri Sala (born 1974) is an Albanian contemporary artist whose primary medium is video. Life and career Sala studied art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996. He also studied video at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Pari ...

, Anna Witt, Thomas Galler, Cristina Garrido,

Nicole Wermers Nicole Wermers (born 1971) is a German artist, born in Emsdetten, and based in London. Education Wermers studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Hamburg (Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg) from 1991 to 1997 and received an MFA from Centr ...

, Micah Hesse, Ohad Meromi, Olaf Nicolai, Francesco Finizio, Mika Rotenberg,

Keren Cytter Keren Cytter (; born 22 August 1977) is an Israeli visual artist and writer. Biography Cytter, born 22 August 1977, spent her childhood in Israel and went on to study visual arts at the Avni Institute of Art and Design, Tel Aviv. After finding ...

, Nimrod Kamer,

Maayan Strauss Maayan Strauss (; born in 1982 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli artist. Strauss studied architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. She has exhibited in several galleries and art projects that have addressed themes as diverse ...

, Vincent Vulsma, Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter, Ekaterina Degot, Boyan, Elisheva Levy,

Ariella Azoulay Ariella Aïsha Azoulay (; born Tel Aviv, born February 21, 1962) is an author, art curator, filmmaker, and theorist of photography and visual culture. She is a professor of Modern Culture and Media and the Department of Comparative Literature ...

, Jan Verwoert, Ingo Niermann, Kerem Halbrecht,

Lara Favaretto Lara Favaretto (born 1973 in Treviso) is an Italians, Italian artist. Favaretto lives and works in Turin, Italy. Favaretto is known for her paintings, installations and research based sculptural works. She has staged interventions that she calls ...

Irit Rogoff Irit Rogoff () is a writer, theorist, teacher and curator. Her research interests include visual culture; contemporary art and critical theory; postcolonialism, geoculture, and geographies, cultures of education and gender. Rogoff obtained her ...

, Caterina Riva,

Omer Fast Omer Fast (; born in Jerusalem, 1972) is an Israeli contemporary artist. Early life and education Born and raised in Jerusalem, Fast spent much of his teenage years in New York. He received his BFA from a dual-degree program at Tufts Universit ...

, Joseph Grima, Noam Yuran, Jodi Dean, Noa Yafe, Bini Adamczak,

Slavoj Zizek Slavoj may refer to: * Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807–1884), Czech teacher, writer, and philosopher * Slavoj Černý (1937–2020), Czech former cyclist *Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosoph ...

, Aim Deuelle Luski, Michael E. Smith, Ruti Sela and Maayan Amir, Oliver Ressler, David Riff, Noa Tsaushu, Zoya Cherkassky, Simon Fujiwara, Doron Rabina, Avi Bohbot, Zachary Formwalt, Moshe Gershuni,

Harun Farocki Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film. Early life and education Farocki was born as Harun El Usman FaroqhiMargalit Fox (3 August 2014)''New York Times''. in Neutitschein, which is n ...

Yael Bartana Yael Bartana (; born 1970) is an Israeli artist, filmmaker and photographer, whose past works have encompassed multiple mediums, including photography, film, video, sound, and installation. Many of her pieces feature political or feminist themes ...

, Yair Garbuz, Boris Buden, and

, among others. His writing has been published in a wide range of publications: Springerin,

Frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

Afterall Afterall is a nonprofit contemporary art research and publishing organisation. It is based in London, at Central Saint Martins. It publishes the journal ''Afterall;'' the book series ''Readers,'' ''One Works'' and ''Exhibition Histories.'' His ...

, Domus International,

Modern Painters Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

, Temporary Art Review, Artpress, Mousse Magazine, Art Actuel, e-flux journal, Public Seminar and Israeli Art magazine Studio. Simon is a fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, The New School, New York (2011-2013), and the Akademie de Künst der Welt, Cologne (2017).

Neomaterialism

The book ''Neomaterialism'' (2013), examines the meaning of materialism today, as materiality has been supposedly defeated by financial and digital operations. Since the so-called dematerialization of currencies and art practices in the late 1960s and early 1970, we have witnessed several shifts the book claims: the focus of labor has moved from production to consumption, the commodity has become the historical subject, and symbols now behave like materials (brands etc.). ''Neomaterialism'' explores the meaning of the world of commodities, and reintroduces various notions of dialectical materialism into the conversation on the subjectivity and

vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

of things. At the height of the influence of Object Oriented Ontology and speculative realism in contemporary art circles, the book provided a much needed critique of these trends of re-fetishization and de-contextualization. Putting

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

at the center of the contemporary experience, the book explores our material culture following the 2008 crisis and the attempts to secure the art market. Simon put forward several concept in the book, such as the unreadymade, sentimental value, and the promise of the dividual as a means for a vocabulary in this new economy of meaning. Reflecting on the general intellect as labor and the subjugation of an overqualified generation to the neo-feudal order of debt finance — with a particular focus on dispossession and rent economy, post-appropriation display strategies and negation, the

barricade Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes ...

and capital's technocratic fascisms—''Neomaterialism'' merges traditions of epic communism with the communism that is already here.

Reception

Neomaterialism
' has been taught in several art programs around the world, and generated several reading groups in Europe, the UK and the US. Among the reactions to it

Boris Groys Boris Efimovich Groys (born 19 March 1947) is an art critic, media theorist, and philosopher. He is currently a global distinguished professor of Russian and Slavic studies at New York University and senior research fellow at the Karlsruhe Unive ...

wrote: "After a short period of ‘unbearable lightness of being,’ the social gravitation begins to be felt again. In his book Joshua Simon describes and analyzes the growing weight of the technical, economic, material basis of our society. The author's sensibility for today's Zeitgeist is at the same time entertaining and precise." Jan Verwoert, wrote for

Frieze Magazine ''Frieze'' is an international contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. The publication is part of the London and New York–based media and events company Frieze. Frieze comprises two publications, ''frieze'' magaz ...

: "In his new book Neomaterialism, Joshua Simon perceptively argues that debt is the crux of the matter. Credit card purchases and mortgage settlements may feel abstract at first. But debt brings its material truth home to you: you do not own that new computer, TV, car or flat; they own you." Pelin Tan wrote in Domus Magazine: "Neomaterialism is a book that prevents us to fall into the pessimism of perceiving the thought of new materialism as a minimalist approach as well as to reconsider our practice as curators, architects and artists in a transversal way in order to create a further criticism not only of the modernist but also post-structuralist heritages of representation and subject-object relations." And Louis Moreno wrote i
Onlineopen.org
"Perhaps Simon’s book represents a new form of guide to contemporary art. This is art as diagnostic toolkit, able to decipher the complex threats that lurk within the fixtures and fittings of everyday life ��Simon’s implicit suggestion that neomaterialist art embodies an auto-critique of financialised capitalism is fascinating." The book had numerous print runs.

The New and Bad Art Gallery

In the summer of 2007 Simon and Arad opened together with artist Maayan Strauss The New and Bad Art Gallery in Tel Aviv, which presented a line-up of debut solo exhibitions by young female artists (Eden Bannet, Inbal Strauss, Noa Tsaushu, Oren Ben Moreh, Efrat Kedem and Fumio Sakurai), with two male exceptions (

Nimrod Kamer Nimrod Kamer (; born 1981) is a comedy writer, gonzo journalist and club crasher based in London. Life and career Kamer was born in 1981 in Petah Tikva, Israel. Kamer claims to hold both Romanian and Israeli passports. In 2004, while attendi ...

and Know Hope). Initially planned to operate for six months, the gallery re-opened after a few months in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

under the directorship of Natalie Levin, and operated there for two years.

Notable concepts

Simon's work is often identified with several concepts - *The Curatoria

*Unreadymad

*The Overqualifie

*Dividua

*Mesoscopic *Metastability

Publishing and Film

Since the late 1990s, Simon has been working closely with poet and writer Roy Chicky Arad on a number of initiatives in Tel Aviv. Together they founded The University of Shenkin and The Free Academy (for which Simon opened the Art Pavilion in his apartment), two platforms of nomadic study that were hosted by art schools and art festivals, theatres and schools. Out of these initiatives came out a travelling poetry reading program that Simon and Arad initiated, which in turn morphed into Guerrilla Tarbut, Guerilla Culture – a platform of poets and activists who organized poetry demonstrations and publications throughout the 2000s. Parallel to these projects in poetry, since the 2000 Simon has been writing and directing short films as a member of the group of filmmakers Baboon, together with Tom Shoval, Daniel Adar, Michael Hanegbi, Adam Sanderson and Oren Shay. Simon's films were shown among other places on Arte/ZDF, Israeli channel 1 and channel 2, and in Anthology Film Archives, NYC, and in The Berlinale Film Festival,

Mar Del Plata, Argentina Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

, Rencontres Internationales Paris and Berlin, FIDMarseille France, Oberhausen IFF Germany, INVIDEO and Milan Short Film Festival, among other places. For his film The Radicals (2001), Simon was awarded The Jerusalem Cinematheque Award for Young Filmmaker. In 2005 Simon and Arad formed Maayan Publishing, which publishes Maayan Magazine for Poetry, Literature and Ideas which they co-edit; Western (Maarvon) – New Film Magazine (which Simon edits); The New and Bad Contemporary Art Magazine (which they edit together with Natalie Levin); and a series for poetry books and original theatre plays. Simon is the author of the poetry book National Citizens. In the first issue of Maayan he published a list called "The Prince", exploring his life and views on the world from A to Z. Since then he wrote essays for the magazine and translated for it songs by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger among others. Simon translated Mierle Landerman Ukeles "Maintenance Art Manifesto" (1969) into Hebrew on its 40th anniversary for The New and Bad Contemporary Art Magazine

Maarvon (Western) – New Film Magazine

Originally, Maarvon was intended as an extended supplement to Maayan Magazine dedicated to cinema and film, but eventually it grew to become an independent film magazine. On its board are key filmmakers, programmers and scholars such as Dan Shadur, Adam Aboulafia, Laliv Melamed, Dani Rosenberg, Nimrod Kamer, Ari Libsker, Tom Shoval, and Karin Rywkind Segal. The magazine also included a column by artist and filmmaker Roee Rosen (issues 1–6). While expanding the writing on contemporary cinema in Hebrew, the magazine made it its goal to look carefully into Israeli film history and present, with essays on sub-genres and rediscovered figures, funding conditions and theoretical blind spots, films by female filmmakers, overview of themes and styles. In recent issues the magazine has been focusing more and more on the shift from montage to the digital. It has dedicated special issues to filmmakers such as

Jean Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as F ...

Alexander Kluge Alexander Kluge (born 14 February 1932) is a German author, philosopher, academic and film director.(editor) Early life, education and early career Kluge was born in Halberstadt, Province of Saxony (now Saxony-Anhalt), Germany. After growing ...

Hito Steyerl Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image visual artist, artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.Harun Farocki Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film. Early life and education Farocki was born as Harun El Usman FaroqhiMargalit Fox (3 August 2014)''New York Times''. in Neutitschein, which is n ...

and others, as they have portrayed the shift from visualising the totality of the social through montage to an exploration of the totality of capital in the digital. Parallel to these filmmakers, the magazine highlighted the work of Albert Serra,

Jia Zhangke Jia Zhangke ( zh, s=贾樟柯, born 24 May 1970) is a Chinese film and television director, screenwriter, producer, actor and writer. He is the founder of Pingyao International Film Festival, dean of the Shanxi Film Academy of Shanxi Media Co ...

Amos Guttman Amos Guttman (; 10 May 1954 – 16 February 1993) was an Israeli film director, born in Romania. He directed the first-ever Israeli LGBT-themed film and most of his films were based on events that happened in his own personal life. Biography G ...

Abderrahmane Sissako Abderrahmane Sissako (; born 13 October 1961) is a Mauritanian-born Malian film director and producer. His film '' Waiting for Happiness'' (''Heremakono'') was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival official selection under Un Certain Regard, ...

Scandar Copti Scandar Copti (; born 1975) is a Palestinian director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for examining social problems of Palestinian society in Israel through his film works. Biography Copti was born and raised in Jaffa. His mothe ...

Lisandro Alonso Lisandro Alonso (born 2 June 1975) is an Argentine film director and screenwriter. He has directed six feature-length films and a short film since 2001 and is loosely associated with the ''New Argentine Cinema'' movement. His film '' La libertad ...

Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film '' Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Inde ...

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong Weerasethakul (; ; , born 16 July 1970) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong h ...

Keren Yedaya Keren Yedaya (; born in 1972) is an Israeli filmmaker. She was born in the United States, but her family moved to Israel in 1975 when she was just three. She trained at the Camera Obscura School of Art in Tel Aviv. Biography Yedaya is known as a ...

, Hagar Ben-Asher,

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After comp ...

Adam Sandler Adam Richard Sandler (born September 9, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. Primarily a comedic leading actor in films, List of awards and nominations received by Adam Sandler, his accolades include an Independent Sp ...

Rob Schneider Robert Michael Schneider ( ; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor and comedian. He rose to prominence as a cast member on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' (1990–1994), where he earned three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Following ...

Avi Mograbi Avi Mograbi (; born May 9, 1956) is an Israeli documentary film, documentary filmmaker. Life and career Mograbi's grandfather founded Cinema of Israel, The Mograbi Cinema ''(Kolnoa Mograbi)'', an Art Deco movie theatre in downtown Tel Aviv. Opened ...

Peter Watkins Peter Watkins (born 29 October 1935) is an English filmmaker, documentarian, writer, and Film theory, film theorist. He is known as a pioneer of the docudrama and the mockumentary genres, typically with heavy political content. His films presen ...

Roberto Rossellini Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such a ...

Sasha Grey Marina Ann Hantzis (born 1988), known professionally as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former pornographic film actress. She began her acting career in the pornographic film industry, winning 15 awards for h ...

Russ Meyer Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American filmmaker. He was primarily known for writing and directing a successful series of sexploitation films featuring campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, wh ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

, Miguel Gomes,

Dušan Makavejev Dušan Makavejev ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Макавејев, ; 13 October 1932 – 25 January 2019) was a Serbian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s—many ...

, Matías Piñeiro, Elida Gera,

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; ; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film '' Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s and of all time. Her work has dealt with themes of colonial and p ...

Michal Bat-Adam Michal Bat-Adam (; born March 2, 1945) is an Israel, Israeli film director, producer, screenwriter, actress, and musician. Her films deal with complex and conflicted relationships, especially relationships within families. She also explores the l ...

. Simon also contributed to the magazine essays on Israeli cinema, on finance and psychosis, and on contemporary romantic comedies of the 2000s and

Bromance A bromance is a very close and non-sexual relationship between two or more men. It is an exceptionally tight, affectional, homosocial male bonding relationship exceeding that of usual friendship, and is distinguished from normal friendship by ...

movies, among other subjects.

Journalism

In the media magazine Firma (a supplement of Globes Financial News), Simon has published articles from 2000 to 2009 on various issues. Simon contributed to the culture section of the daily newspaper Globes with art reviews and interviews and was the newspaper's art critic and contributor to the paper's Op-Eds. In Firma, Simon served as editorial board member, ran a column "Reading the News" which was a focused on media critique, interviewed key figures of the local political scene such as

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

(Minister of Finance at the time),

Ehud Olmert Ehud Olmert (; , ; born 30 September 1945) is an Israeli politician and lawyer who served as the prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009. The son of a former Herut politician, Olmert was first elected to the Knesset for Likud in 1973, at th ...

(Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor at the time),

Avigdor Lieberman Avigdor Lieberman (, ; born 5 June 1958) is a Soviet-born Israeli politician who served as Ministry of Finance (Israel), Minister of Finance between 2021 and 2022, having previously served twice as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to ...

(Minister of Strategic Affairs at the time),

Amir Peretz Amir Peretz (; born 9 March 1952) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Israeli Labor Party, Labor Party. A Knesset member almost continuously from 1988 to 2021, he has served as Ministry of Defense (Israel), ...

(Chairman of the General Organization of Workers in Israel at the time),

Akiva Orr Akiva "Aki" Orr (; born Karl Sebastian Sonnenberg; June 19, 1931 – February 7, 2013) was an Israeli writer and political activist. He was an outspoken critic of Zionism and supported a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. A ...

(key political figure of anti-Zionist Left in Israel since the 1960s),

Shimshon Bichler Shimshon Bichler () is an Israeli educator who teaches political economy at colleges and universities in Israel. Along with Jonathan Nitzan, Bichler has created a power theory of capitalism and theory of differential accumulation in their analys ...

(world renowned scholar of the political economy of Israel's military-financial complex), filmmaker Menachem Golan, as well as International philosopher Slavoj Zizek and many others. In addition, from 2005 to 2009 Simon ran a weekly column in the now mythological metro weekly Ha-Ir (the Tel Aviv equivalent of

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

). The column, "Close to Home," was key to define the changes the city has undergone in its leadership's attempt to position it as a

Global City A global city (also known as a power city, world city, alpha city, or world center) is a city that serves as a primary node in the global economic network. The concept originates from geography and urban studies, based on the thesis that glo ...

. In his column, Simon observed urban developments and gentrification trends, gave voice to right to the city movements and expanded on the intertwined political and architectural meaning of public sphere.

Select exhibitions

• In The Liquid – group exhibition, PrintScreen Media Art Festival, Holon Israel, Oct.-Nov. 2018 • Second Nature – group exhibition, the main exhibition at the fifth International Photography Festival, Tel Aviv (Nov.-Dec. 2017), Traveled to Gate3 gallery in Haifa (Feb.-April 2018) �
The Kids Want Communism
– a two and a half year long program of exhibitions and events marking 99 years to the Soviet Revolution. A joint project of Tranzit, Prague; Free/Slow University of Warsaw; State of Concept, Athens; Škuc gallery, Ljubljana; Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv and MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, with exhibitions also travelling to Westspace, Melbourne and Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin (October 2015-November 2017) �
Roee Rosen: Group Exhibition – retrospective exhibition of the works of Roee Rosen
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, January–April 2016, co-curated with Gilad Melzer �
Factory Fetish – group exhibition, Westspace Melbourne
Australia, November–December 2015, co-curated with Liang Luscombe �
Francesco Finizio: ARKPAKCRAFTRAFTCLINICCLUBPUB – solo exhibition
MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, February–May 2015 �
Ruti Sela – solo exhibition
MoBY-Museums of Bat Yam, April–July 2014; Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Feb.-March 2015 • Goods – group exhibition, MoBY – Museums of Bat Yam, November 2013, co-curated with Liz Hajaj • ReCoCo – Life Under Representational Regimes – group exhibition, White Space - Office for Curating-Art-Theory, Zurich Feb. 2011; Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, May 2011; MoBY – Museums of Bat Yam, May 2013, co-curated with Siri Peyer • Iran – group exhibition, The Spaceship at Hayarkon 70, Tel Aviv-Yafo, March–May 2012. co-curated with Ari LIbsker and Roy Chicky Arad •

– Satellites – solo exhibition, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, January–April 2012 • The Unreadymade – group exhibition, FormContent, London Dec. 2010-Jan. 2011 • The Invisible Hand – group exhibition, Sommer Contemporary Art Gallery, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Oct.-Dec. 2009 • Internazionale! – group exhibition, Left Bank: The Israeli Communist Party Culture Club, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Sep. 2008 • "Come to Israel: It’s Hot and Wet and We Have the Humus" – group exhibition,

Storefront for Art and Architecture Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent, non-profit art and architecture organization located in SoHo, Manhattan in New York City. The organization is committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and des ...

, NYC; April 2008 • The Rear – The 1st Herzliya Biennial of Contemporary Art, Israel, 2007 • Doron – group exhibition, Minshar College of Art, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 2006, co-curated with

and Roy Chicky Arad • Blanks – group exhibition, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Nov. 2005, co-curated with Sergio Edelsztien �
Sharon – group exhibition, Teachers College of Technology, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 2004
•

Amos Gitai Amos Gitai () is an artist and an Israelis, Israeli filmmaker, born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel. Gitai's work was presented in several major retrospectives in Pompidou Center in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Lincoln Center for ...

– A Retrospective, travelling film program in Israeli cinematheques, 2003 • I slept with Ari Libsker - group exhibition, The Free Academy Pavilion of Art, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 2001 • 96 Elections – solo exhibition of Roy Chicky Arad, Tal Esther Gallery, Tel Aviv-Yafo, 2000

Authored books

*''National Citizens - Essays �זרחים לאומיים'' Tel Aviv: Havkin Publishing, 1998, 6 pp. (In Hebrew) eprinted in: ''Hamidrasha Art Journal'', Issue 11: Parody/Irony, 2008 (In Hebrew)*''National Citizens �זרחים לאומיים'' Tel Aviv: Shadurian Publishing, 2001, 80 pp. (In Hebrew) *''Neomaterialism,'' Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013, 194 pp.

Edited books

*''Sea & Sun'', catalogue for the Israeli Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004, 124 pp. *With Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka, Turky Ammar, Roy Chicky Arad, Marwan Makhoul, Nir Nader, Yaara Shehori and Mati Shmuelof, ''Red – Class Poetry �דומה – אסופה לשירה מעמדית', Maayan Publishing in partnership with Etgar, Hakivun Mizrah, 2007, 232 pp. (In Hebrew and Arabic) *With Roy Chicky Arad, Ronen Eidelman, Tomer Gardi, Nir Nader, Yaara Shehori, Mati Shmuelof and Boaz Yaniv, ''Out – Against The Attack on Gaza �צאת – נגד ההתקפה על עזה', Maayan Publishing in partnership with Daka, Etgar, Guerilla Culture, Maarav and Sedek, 2008, 74 pp. (In Hebrew and Arabic) *With Manon Slome, ''The Aesthetics of Terror'', New York and Milan: Charta Books, 2009, 104 pp. *''United States of Palestine-Israel'', Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2011, 128 pp. *With Roy Chicky Arad, ''Good Energies – the Protocol of the Israeli Parliamentary Committee on Natural Gas Royalties'', Maayan Publishing, 2011, 53 pp. n Hebrew*With Roy Chicky Arad, Ronen Eidelman, Ori Ensenberg, Roni Hirsch, Efrat Mishori, Nir Nader, Yudit Shahar, Yaara Shehori, Mati Shmuelof, ''The Revolution Song-Book - Tents Poetry �ירון המהפכה – שירת האוהלים', Maayan Publishing in partnership with Daka, Etgar, Erev-Rav and Guerilla Culture, 2011, 109 pp. (In Hebrew) *''Ruti Sela: For The Record'', Berlin: Archive Books, 2015, 224 pp. *With Ingo Niermann, ''Communists Anonymous'', Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2017, 292 pp. *''Being Together Precedes Being: A Textbook for The Kids Want Communism'', Berlin: Archive Books, 2019, 392 pp.

Select Articles

*"Damn, We’re Sexy: Joshua Simon and Roy Chick Arad in conversation," ''Hamidrasha Art Journal'' , Issue 7: Education/Initiation, 2004 (In Hebrew) *"Il Principe – Autobiography," ''Maayan Magazine for Poetry Literature and Ideas'', Issue 1, Winter 2004-5 (In Hebrew) *"Silence of the Lamps: on the films of Jos De Gruyter and Harald Thys," ''Afterall Journal'', Issue 22, Fall 2009 *"A Certain Tendency in Israeli Cinema," ''Maarvon – New Film Magazine'', Issue 1, Winter 2005-6 (In Hebrew) eprinted in English online on Slash Seconds

*"On the Aesthetics of Terror," in: Boris Groys and

Peter Weibel Peter Weibel (Austrian German: �vaɪbl ; 5 March 1944 – 1 March 2023) was an Austrian post-conceptual artist, curator, and new media theoretician. He started out in 1964 as a visual poet, then later moved from the page to the screen within th ...

(eds.), ''Medium Religion'', ZKM: Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Autumn-Winter 2008 *"White Picket Fence: Settlement and Suburbia, Geography and Real Estate," in: Ariella Azoulay (ed.)
''HomeLessHome'', Museum on The Seam, Jerusalem
Feb. 2010 *"Neo-Materialism," three part essay on ''e-flux journal'' #20, #23, #26 (Nov. 2010; March 2011; Sep. 2011

*"Betrayal and the Curatorial," in: Jean-Paul Martinon (ed.), ''The Curatorial: A Philosophy of Curating'', Bloomsbury Publishing, UK, 2013 *"Shockwork: The Selfie and the Labour of the Overqualified," in: ''Journal'', ICA, London, 2014

*"The Overqualified," ''Art Handler Magazine,'' Issue 1, NYC, 2015 *"Debt and the Materiality of the Dividual," key note paper from the conference ‘Transversal Practices: Matter, Ecology and Relationality’, VI Conference on New Materialisms 27–29 September 2015, The Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. Published in: ''Springerin Magazine'', Vienna, Austria, January 2016 erman and Englishbr>
*"The Dual Power of Arts Organizations," ''Temporary Art Review'', November 2016

*"Neoliberal Politics, Protective Edge, and BDS," in: Kareem Estefan, Carin Kuoni, Laura Raicovich (eds.), ''Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production'', OR Books, NYC, 2017 *"From Value to Price, From Labor to Debt, From Revolution to Disruption," ''Public Seminar'', The New School, NYC, Oct. 2017

*"Soviet Knowledge," ''Haokets for Social Critique'', Nov. 2017 (In Hebrew) *"Phantom-Politics," in: Marina Grzinic (ed.), ''Border Thinking: Disassembling Histories of Racialized Violence'', The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Sternberg Press, 2018 *"The Postman Always Rings Twice: Why Does Post-History Repeat Itself?," in: Joshua Simon (ed.) ''Being Together Precedes Being: A Textbook for The Kids Want Communism'', Berlin: Archive Books, 2019 *"Speculation and Counter-Speculation." ''MaHKUscript: Journal of Fine Art Research'', 3(1), p. 3, 2019

*"Gentlemen of the Spoon: The meaning of Netanyahu," ''Maayan Magazine'', Issue 15, Summer 2019 (In Hebrew). Appeared online on Mekomit

*"The Way Things Are Organized: The Mesoscopic, The Metastable, The Curatorial," in: Paul O'Neill, Simon Sheikh, Lucy Steeds and Mick Wilson (eds.), ''Curating After The Global'', MIT Press, 2019

Select short films

• Push Up Teaser (teaser for feature film starring

Yael Grobglas Yael Grobglas (, ; born ) is an Israeli actress, best known for her role as Petra Solano on The CW's television series ''Jane the Virgin''. She started her career in Israeli television, gaining prominence among Israeli teenagers. She gained re ...

, Omer Goldman and Danielle Kitzis), 2011 • Die Unsichtbare Hand (special commission from the Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, based on a poem by Daniel Falb), 2010 • Les mots et les choses (starring

Yehuda Levi Yehuda Levi (; born June 29, 1979) is an Israeli actor, model and TV presenter. Regarded as one of the best performers of his generation in Israel, he is recognized for his versatile work across independent films, television and the stage. He h ...

, Gili Saar and

), 2004 • My Room (documentary short commissioned by Channel 8 for science & culture), 2002 • The Radicals (starring Yaara Sharon, Roy Chicky Arad, Michael Hanegbi, Dan Shadur,

, Lior Levy, Michal Shalev), 2001 • Moments (documentary commissioned by Israeli Channel 1), 2001 • City Hole (starring Iva Kafri and Tomer Persico), 1999

References

External links

*
''Maayan Magazine'' Websitethe ''Doron'' exhibition
(website)
''The Radicals''
(film by Joshua Simon)
On The Barnes Foundation
(website)
Vera List Center for Art and Politics website

AKADEMIE DER KÜNSTE DER WELT
website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Joshua Israeli film directors Israeli curators Israeli journalists Living people 1979 births