Ofir Feldman Works By creating new fields of science, administration, economics or entertainment, I explore sociopolitical mechanisms of alienation in the contemporary society. As an interdisciplinary artist, I experience detachment even within my own "Techne". As an ex immigrant, verbal language has always been a source of dissatisfaction and mystery for me. As a current immigrant in my homeland it still is. Index CV Portfolio Art Idol WordBank
Curriculum Vitae 1977 Born in Haifa, lives and works in Tel Aviv Education 2001-2006 BA Fine Arts, Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, Thesis: The written word in the works of M. Duchamp and A. Muntadas, Italy 1999-2000 Drawing and traditional animation, School of Visual Arts, NY, USA Selected exhibitions, screenings, performances 2012 In Other Words / Blackmarket of Translation, NGBK and Kunstraum Kreuzberg, WordBank, Berlin (upcoming) 2011 17º Festival Internacional SESC_Videobrasil, Art Idol, São Paulo, Brazil Optica Festival de video arte, Poetic Account; Local Denial, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain; Centro de Cultura Antiguo, Gijón, Spain; Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Asif 2011, Animation Festival, Cinematek, The Punctuation Mark Campaign, Tel Aviv, Israel C.A.R. media art fair, Zollverein world heritage site, Poetic Account, Essen, Germany Loop Festival, Poetic Account, Barcelona, Spain Not A Car, Los Angeles Art Association, LAAA, Poetic Account, USA Open Tre, SALE Docks, Art Idol, Venice, Italy Identity Crisis, 91m2 Project Space, Even, Shoshan, Berlin, Germany ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Poetic Account, Berlin, Germany The 7th International Directors Lounge, Verbal by Nature; Capitalization, Berlin, Germany 2010 InBetween, P8 Gallery, Even, Shoshan, Jaffa, Israel Grants Residence Workshops 2011 Cultural Leaders, interdisciplinary workshop, Zichron Ya'akov, Israel 2010 Künstlerhaus Bethanien, invitation to the international residence program, Berlin, Germany 2009 Hobnox, winner for his concept WordBank, category Culture, Cologne, Germany
Presence in Archives The Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon, Israel Selected Publications La Folha de S. http://tinyurl.com/folha-art-idol-1 Paulo http://tinyurl.com/folha-art-idol-2 Juedische Allgemeine http://tinyurl.com/juedische-allgemeine-ofir History&Theory - The Protocols (Bezalel) http://tinyurl.com/protocols-wordbank Erev-Rav http://erev-rav.com/archives/14550 Universe in Universe http://tinyurl.com/universe-in-universe Website: http://www.ofirfeldman.com
Portfolio Art Idol Reality-Performance with Aya Eliav, 52:00 min., Sao Paulo 2011 (Video duration: 31:32 min.) http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/artidolsaopaulo pass: aya_ofir
Wor dba n k Ver ba l by Na t ur e 15 videos in 14 languages Compilation Video, 6:59 min., Berlin 2010 http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/compilation
WordBank Punctuation Mark Campaign 17 animations Capitalization Animation, 0:28 min., Berlin-Tel Aviv 2010 http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/capitalization
WordBank The Six Account 6 videos Poetic Video, 1:08 min., Berlin 2010 http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/poetic
Local Denial Video with Aya Eliav, 5:40 min., Israel 2011 http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/localdenial2011 pass: aya_ofir
Even, Shoshan Video, 20:49 min., Berlin 2010 http://vimeo.com/ofirfeldman/evenshoshan pass: ofir123
Art idol, Reality Performance, 52 Work in progress (2011 ) As in a famous reality show, artists perform to a jury, reenacting historic performances. Art Idol humorously problematizes issues such as the relevance of this language within the current scenario, and the spectacularization of art. (Solange Farkas, 17 Festival Internacional de arte contemporânea Sesc_VideoBrasil, Panoramas Do Sul - catalogue, p. 64) Art Idol São Paulo 2011, Courtesy Of The Artists The jury members : Daniela Bousso, Eduardo de Jesus, Marcio Harum Work Description Art Idol is a performance based on the finals of the famous TV reality competitions such as X-Factor and American Idol, this time to find the so called new solo performance talent. The winner is determined by the audience (through SMS text voting, Facebook voting etc.) and by a curators jury panel (contemporary art curators). Aya Eliav and Ofir Feldman direct and co-produce the show, and perform as the final candidates. During the show they reenact important
performances of influential artists. After each reenactment the jury discuss it and give their own opinion about the reenactments in reference to the original pieces. The show is accompanied by short promo-clips of each reenactment, a theme song, background and transitional musics and an animated logo. With the current show's program the duration of the show is approximately 52min. The performance is meant to be on TV, broadcasted in live as a TV show. C Art Idol São Paulo 2011, Courtesy Of The Artists Clockwise from top left: Moderator's (Marina Person) intro to AAA-AAA ; Aya Eliav's reenactment of Cut Piece ; Ofir Feldman's reenactment of Le baiser de l'artiste ; Moderator's presentation of the voting system.
The show's program The show includes 4 pieces but might be expanded in the future. Current list of reenactments: 1. AAA-AAA performance by Marina Abramovic and Ulay (1978) 2. Open My Glade (Flatten) Öffne meine Lichtung video installation by Pipilotti Rist (2000) 3. Le baiser de l'artiste. Le distributeur automatique ou presque! performance by ORLAN (1977) 4. Cut Piece performance by Yoko Ono (1965) Art Idol São Paulo 2011, Courtesy Of The Artists Aya Eliav, Ofir Feldman Reeanctment of AAA-AAA Redefining the boundaries of performance art We see "Art Idol as a Reality-Performance, a new experimental art form which derives directly from performance art and installs it in a reality TV format, checking its place as an affirmed art form in the era of reality shows; checking the borderlines between artist to audience, TV audience and curators.
WordBank, Multimedial project Work in progress (2004 ) The individual is the corporation WordBank is a conceptual art project, composed of a set of multimedia sub-projects. This ensemble forms the body of the artwork, creating a corporate identity of a bank of words which enjoys the visibility of a real institution: branding, campaigns and a wide graphic, textual infrastructure, all of which animate the illusion that the bank really exists. In spite of its convincing appearance, the banking entity remains completely metaphoric, non-practical and non-commercial. WordBank purports to manage our vocabulary and to supply us with an access to different languages and socio-linguistic registers, which are out of our reach. The artwork illustrates a new, invented term: Verbal Economics, which, to use Ferdinand de Saussure's terminology, has been created by attributing to the signifier word the signified money. This semantic switch helps to open up a space for questioning the value of every single letter and word. Moreover, it calls for the magical powers and the sacredness of the word (as understood by the Cabbala) to be restored. The term Verbal Economics serves as an axis along which all the other fictitious terms of WordBank terminology are being placed: silence as the savings account; the spoken, written and consciousness accounts; the six socio-linguistic-register accounts etc. These terms are being translated into an aesthetic experience by means of video presentations in different languages and with the help of a website, a street campaign, commercial ads in video and animation, fliers and postcards. WordBank is meant to become a performative-interactive installation.
Index of WordBank's services, products and partners, 2010 Courtesy Of The Artist