Guy Ben-Ner (; born 1969) is an Israeli

video artist Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...

. He lives and works in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Biography

Guy Ben-Ner received a Bachelor of Arts in Education in 1997 from Hamidrasha School of Art and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York City in 2003. At Columbia, he studied under the critic

Jerry Saltz Jerry Saltz (born February 19, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American art critic. Since 2006, he has been senior art critic and columnist for ''New York magazine, New York'' magazine. Formerly the senior art critic for ''The Village Voice'', ...

. He is Dean of Hamidrasha School of Art at

Beit Berl College Beit Berl College is a multi-disciplinary academic college for higher education located in Beit Berl in the Sharon plain, Sharon region of Israel. It is one of the oldest colleges in Israel. The college grants undergraduate degrees (B.Ed and ...

Art career

Since the early 1990s, Ben-Ner has filmed a series of short

videos Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...

starring himself and his family, often using the intimate spaces of their home as ''ad hoc'' set, studio, and fantastical playroom.Guy Ben-Ner
Adaptation, January 31 – May 4, 2008 Smart Museum of Art,

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

His works are often exhibited with the simple sets and props created for the videos. A recurring theme in Ben-Ner’s early videos is the tedium and isolation experienced by a stay-at-home parent. Ben-Ner’s first narrative video, ''Berkeley’s Island'' (1999), based on

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

’s ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1719), depicts the solitary life of a castaway. Set in the family kitchen, it opens with a scene of the artist lying on his back in a bathing suit on a meter-wide pile of sand from which a lone palm tree grows, with a steering wheel across his bare, sunburned chest. The 15-minute video features several vignettes about life on the island, which Ben-Ner narrates in a voice-over. The plot does not follow Defoe’s exactly, though notable moments in the book are re-created, such as the castaway discovering a footprint and training a parrot (played by the family cat) to say his name. The castaway has delusions; he sees himself levitating and losing a limb—simplistic magic tricks that Ben-Ner stages using mirrors. To depict a raging gale, Ben-Ner rigs the palm tree with ropes that are pulled by someone offscreen. ''Wild Boy'' (2004), an adaptation of

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...

's 1970 film '' L'enfant sauvage (The Wild Child)'', can be shown in two forms: alone, or incorporated into an installation that re-creates a woodland set that the artist built in his kitchen, complete with a tree and a carpeted hill on which visitors may sit to watch the video. In ''Stealing Beauty'' (2007), the artist's family staged guerrilla theater in

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

showrooms: Moving among the displays, they conduct a reasonable facsimile of family life; dishes are done, discipline imposed, discussions held (private property is a topic), and everyone tucks in for the night — in numerous beds — as IKEA's other customers wander through. In 2009, Ben-Ner participated in the

Performa The Macintosh Performa is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1992 to 1997. The Performa brand re-used models from Apple's Quadra, Centris, LC, Classic, and Power Macintosh families ...

Biennial (curated by RoseLee Goldberg) creating his work
Drop the Monkey
'. In ''Foreign Names'' (2012), Ben Ner visited nearly 100 Aroma Espresso Bar locations, left a fake name in English that would be called out at the counter when his beverage was ready, then edited all the videotaped segments to create an "ode" lamenting the disappearance of waiters. ''Soundtrack'' (2013) takes an eleven-minute scene from

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's 2005 movie ''

War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and '' Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel wa ...

'' as a "ready-made" soundtrack and pairs it with footage shot in Ben Ner's kitchen in Tel Aviv, with smashing plates and combusting appliances. Ben-Ner’s 2016 video, Escape artists, was acquired by The

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

, Jerusalem in March 2019. The work consists of two years of weekly video lessons that Ben-Ner gave to Sudanese and Eritrean

asylum seeker An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A per ...

s at the Holot Detention Center in the Negev desert. He uses the medium of film to mirror the refugees' difficult reality, and uses that same reality to reveal cinematic tricks and illusions. Because of this style, the film viewer learns about the lives and circumstances of the refugees in addition to learning lessons about filmmaking.

Exhibitions

Ben-Ner represented Israel in the 2005

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(January 31, 2008)
Artist in Residence - When Guy Ben-Ner goes to Ikea, he's not there for the meatballs.
''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

''. He also had solo exhibitions at the Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2006); Center for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2006);

Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (, MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex. Founded in 1964, it ...

, Montreal (2007); L'Espace Shawinigan of the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

(2008); and the

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ...

(2009). His work is currently in a group show titled
Uncommon Commonalities
'' a
Aspect/Ratio
in Chicago, IL.

Awards and recognition

* 1994 Ingeborg Bachman Scholarship, established by Anselm Kiefer, Wolf Foundation * 2007 Preis des Internationalen Wettbewerbs: KunstFilmBiennale, Köln/Cologne, Germany * 2008 The

Sandberg Prize The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art refers to a prize for art and design awarded at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, with a particular focus on Israeli art. The prize was inaugurated in 1968 with funds from an anonymous New York City, New York–based ...

for Israeli Art,

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, Israel

References

External links

Guy Ben Ner in the IMJ Collections
* *
Guy Ben-Ner profile
at

Kadist Art Foundation KADIST is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts organization with an international contemporary art collection. KADIST hosts artist residencies and produces exhibitions, publications, and public events. Founded by Vincent Worms and Sandra Te ...

* Photo of the artist, ''Haaretz'

* Galleria, ''Haaretz'', 13.08.2010 * ''BELLEMODE'', 01.09.2010 * Galleria, Rosh Hashana, 08.09.2010 * 7 Nights, ''Yediot Aharonot'', 01.10.2010 * ''TIME OUT Tel Aviv'', 14.10.2010 * Galleria, ''Haaretz'', 05.01.2011 * ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

'', 26. August 2011, p. 52 Exhibition

Uncanny Valley The effect is a hypothesized psychological and aesthetic relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The uncanny valley hypothesis predicts that an entity appearing almost huma ...

/Wohnwelten in der Kunst,

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

, Germany
Guy Ben-Ner Artist Page
at

Sommer Contemporary Art Sommer Contemporary Art is a contemporary art gallery, owned by Irit Fine Sommer and based in the Kiryat Hamelacha neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. The gallery is considered to be among the most influential in Israel for contemporary art. It wa ...

br>Gallery Website
*Simon, Joshua:
Neomaterialism
', Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Ner, Guy Israeli video artists Sandberg Prize recipients Living people Jewish Israeli artists 1969 births Israeli contemporary artists HaMidrasha – Faculty of the Arts alumni Columbia University School of the Arts alumni