Ironic Historiography

Lecture by Dr. Sigal Barkai - “Ironic Historiography”: on Art, Nationality and In-between Identities

The presentation deals with questions of identities of native Israeli artists who chose to live out of the country or to move back and forth to and from it and asks about the ways these wanderings are reflected in their artwork. “Ironic Historiography” is a hybrid notion, combining criticism of historical narratives concerning the Israeli state with ironic artistic expression.

The lecture will discuss the work of four contemporary artists who produce artworks in diverse techniques, such as video, performance and installation art. Yael Bartana, Erez Israeli and Tamir Zadok are artists who constantly deal with Israeli nationality and history in their artwork, using ironic components. In comparison, it will examine the works of Mika Rottenberg, who is now a New York based artist. She is concerned with global social issues and neglected specific national identity altogether. All of them use visual irony as a means of reflecting and criticizing society.

Short Bio
Dr. Sigal Barkai is the head of Visual Literacy – Arts Education Graduate Program (M.Ed ) at the Faculty of Arts, Kibbutzim College, Tel-Aviv, Israel. She is a researcher and curator of contemporary Israeli art. Previously, she was a curator at the Petach-Tikva Museum of Art (2005-2009) and since then she worked as an independent curator in various venues such as the Eretz Israel museum and Haifa Museum of Art. She published numerous papers and articles about Israeli visual arts from a feminist and sociopolitical point of view, including the chapter “Between the Joy of the Woman Castrator and the Silence of the Woman Victim: Following the Exhibition The Uncanny XX” in Sensational Pleasures in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture: The Phallic Eye, edited by Gilad Padva and Nurit Buchweitz (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). Her Ph.D dissertation entitled “A Stage for Masculinities: Representations of Israeli soldiers in the theatre” was submitted to the Faculty of Arts at Tel Aviv University in 2012. Since 2011, she has been serving as the national supervisor of art education in the Israeli Ministry of Education.

The event is supported by the Embassy of Israel in Cyprus.

The lecture will be delivered in English.