Roee Rosen, Out (Tse), film still, 2010, copyright the artist
Introduction
The first UK solo exhibition of Israeli artist, writer and filmmaker Roee Rosen. An outspoken critic of Israeli government policy, Rosen’s work addresses some of the ethical dilemmas underlying social reality in his native Israel and we are showing two seminal works, an immersive installation and a film, alongside a striking large scale new artwork created especially to cover the entire window façade of Rivington Place.
Roee Rosen is one of the most influential artists in Israel, and is known not only as a virtuoso painter, but also as a novelist, a polemic intellectual, and an admired teacher.
Roee Rosen: Vile, Evil Veil contributes to the discussions about the Middle East which Iniva has explored through recent exhibitions and projects.
PS1 – Live and Die as Eva Braun
Through innovative role-play Rosen stages the ethical dilemmas that underlie social reality in his native Israel, and beyond. In Live and Die as Eva Braun (1995-97) the spectator is invited to become Eva Braun, Hitler’s lover, during the last days of the war, experiencing intimacy with the dictator, his suicide and a short trip to hell. When displayed in the Israel Museum in 1997 this work drew such controversy that the then Minister for Education requested its closure. Since then the work has been acclaimed as ‘groundbreaking’ and displayed in Berlin, New York, and Warsaw. Live and Die as Eva Braun is an installation and a book, from which 66 works on paper and ten segments of text are on display in the ground floor gallery Project Space 1.
NB. Visitors are advised that this exhibition contains explicit material of a sexual nature. Visitors may feel this is not suitable for children under your supervision.
PS2 – Out (Tse)
Rosen’s award winning film Out (Tse)(34mins; 2010) is screened upstairs at Rivington Place. The film deals with boundaries between the body and state, radical sexuality and politics through a staged domination/ submission exorcism scene set in an ordinary living room.
Awards for Out (Tse):
– Orizzonti award, best medium-length film, 67th Venice Film Festival
– ARTE Award for best European film, Oberhausen Short Film Festival
– First prize, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival
NB. Visitors are advised that this exhibition contains explicit material of a sexual nature. The film Out (Tse) shown here contains an episode of sadomasochism and exorcism. Visitors may feel this is not suitable for children under your supervision.
The film will not be showing after 5:30 on Thursdays 12, 19 and 26 April and on Thursday 3rd May.
Rosen has also created a special piece that covers the entire front window of Rivington Place.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of events, Blasphemy and Redemption curated by Adrian Rifkin