I am also… Douglas Gordon
24 January–25 May 2013
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
27 Shaul Hamelech Boulevard, Tel Aviv
T 972 3 6077020
Guest Curator: Ami Barak
Tel Aviv Museum of Art will host I am also… Douglas Gordon, a major exhibition of one of the leading figures on the contemporary art scene. The Berlin-based artist (b. 1966, Glasgow) is an outstanding personality, whose ties to Israeli culture have become stronger in recent years.
Douglas Gordon is a “film player,” who uses cinema and video as a medium, always installing it with a “sculptural” outlook. While he is best known for his films and complex large-scale video installations, his art also encompasses photographs, texts and objects.
Gordon draws inspiration from cinema, literature, art, popular culture and his own history, wavering between personal and collective memory. He explores the existential themes of life and death, good and evil, innocence and guilt and temptation and fear; the exhibition thus proves to be a portrait of the artist’s obsessions.
This survey exhibition provides an overview of Gordon’s work from the past twenty years. Some of the pieces presented have become iconic, such as 24 Hour Psycho (1993), 30 seconds text. (1996), and Play Dead; Real Time (2003). Others are references that maintain an undeniable appeal, such as Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006). More recent works on view are k.364 (2010), which masterfully connects the present to a dark past, Henry Rebel (2011), and The End of Civilisation (2012). The progressive display will be on view in the new Herta and Paul Amir Building and the Museum’s main building.
A defining feature of Gordon’s approach is his ability to animate the architecture itself. Gordon will install nearly 100 text works—words and phrases open to interpretation—within the Light Fall of the Herta and Paul Amir Building, attesting to his enthrallment with language and its multiple meanings.
Douglas Gordon
Winner of the Turner Prize in 1996, Douglas Gordon first gained recognition in 1993 with his celebrated video installation 24 Hour Psycho. Since his first solo show in 1986, he has exhibited extensively, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (2001); Hayward Gallery, London (2002); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2007); Tate Britain, London (2010); MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (2011); and Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2012). Douglas Gordon is represented by several art galleries, such as Gagosian (London–New York), Yvon Lambert (Paris), Dvir Gallery (Tel Aviv), and Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zurich).
Ami Barak
Ami Barak, former President of the IKT (the international association of curators of contemporary art), is an independent curator and art critic based in Paris. He has curated numerous international exhibitions, among which the most recent major curatorial project was Art for the World [the Expo], a sculpture project at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. In 2011, he was the co-curator of the Romanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. More recently, he curated Foreigners Everywhere, works from the Pomeranz Collection (2012, Jewish Museum Vienna) He is currently a lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne University.
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art is one of Israel’s leading artistic and cultural institutions located in the heart of Tel Aviv. The museum comprises various departments: Israeli Art, which holds a comprehensive collection of local art from the beginning of the 20th century to the present; Modern and Contemporary Art, Prints and Drawings, Photography, Architecture and Design, and Old Masters Department.
In addition to its extensive program of permanent and changing exhibitions, the museum offers a vibrant selection of programs and activities for adults, youth and children: concerts, classes, lectures, guided tours, workshops, and more.
The museum is situated in three main buildings: The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, the Main Building and adjacent to it the new Herta and Paul Amir Building designed by Prof. Preston Scott Cohen, inaugurated in the Fall of 2011 and which already been acclaimed by the New York Times Magazine as one of the most important buildings of the 21st century.
The exhibition and the catalogue have been made possible thanks to the generosity of the Association française des Amis du Musée d’Art de Tel Aviv; British Council; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv; Wendy Fisher; Gagosian Gallery; Yvon Lambert, Paris; and anonymous donors.
Hours
Sunday closed
Monday, Wednesday 10–16h
Tuesday, Thursday 10–22h
Friday 10–14h
Saturday 10–16h
