TEL AVIV.- The first retrospective in Israel for the artist Guy Ben Ner (b. 1969, Israel, lives and works in Tel Aviv), who is one of the most prominent video artists in the world today. Ben Ner has gained worldwide recognition for his video works, many of which are shot at his home on a purposely meager budget, and feature the artist himself and members of his family (his spouse and children).

The exhibition presents works from the early 90s to the present day include new works made specifically for this exhibition.

Ben Ner’s early works highlight the tension between the artist’s freedom and his position as a father and family man, based on formative myths, canonical literary works, and classic films. They capture the chaos, horror, and fantasy behind the desire to break free of the shackles of family commitment, and the desire to turn the millstone on his neck to advantage—namely, to creative endeavor. Subsequently, Ben Ner rendered the constraints dictated by family life into various rules that he imposed upon his works, such as making a film with no editing whatsoever, or using the same footage for different storylines. These became cornerstones of his later works, as well. Ben Ner’s films lie at the intersection between genres and styles: home video, soap opera, sitcom, nature documentary, instructional video, slapstick, silent cinema, video travelogue, and science fiction. The conventions and content of these various genres serve as fertile ground for the encounter between primal urges and social norms and moral standards, and represent a yearning for freedom within the many trappings of civilization and the imperative (and curse) of the need to obey them. The films exploit the spirit of low-tech and improvisation to reveal how they are produced, and as leverage in exposing the cultural mechanisms they are aimed at. The personal is a bridge to universal, political, and economic issues. Ben Ner’s films are marked by humor, original inventions, absurdity, irony, and anarchic mischief. Many of his works portray guerrilla-like actions across the boundary between private and public spaces, such as unsanctioned film shoots, prohibited use of public areas, and manipulations of public property. Ben Ner offers this model of “low-cost” cinema as a declaration of independence that enables production flexibility, as well as casting a critical eye on the economic workings behind the worlds of art, film, and television. However, such financial independence and modest-scale production serve not only as a means for creating these works, but also as a significant part of their content: “homemade” work engages with the home, “theft” engages with the notion of private property, and “nature film” highlights cultural hierarchies. The human, domestic scale of these works, which does not require many staff members, allows the artistic activity to transpire as an organic part of everyday life. Accordingly, Ben Ner’s films do not so much document life as make things happen in them. Thus, the artist’s life story produces the films and the films generate the life story.