If you can’t make it to the Venice Biennale next week, Capitain Petzel has a little consolation for you. This Saturday, the gallery is hosting a film screening by artist Yael Bartana, who is co-designing the German pavilion this year alongside theater director Ersan Mondtag. Bartana’s trilogy “And Europe Will Be Stunned,” created in Poland between 2007 and 2011, will be will be featured. Born in Israel in 1970, Bartana repeatedly intertwines history and fiction in her films to grapple with questions of ideology. She ironically creates an exaggerated present and conjures imaginary visions of the future. Bartana is particularly fascinated by how fantasies of power mobilize people.
The three films comprising “And Europe Will Be Stunned” also delve into an alternative reality. In the style of a propaganda film, the video work imagines what it would look like if a kibbutz were established in the center of Warsaw. Bartana, in her exploration of her origins, does not sugarcoat anything, nor does she preach. Her films are contradictory in the best sense: Bartana exposes political propaganda from all angles by appropriating oversized images, compelling soundtracks and poetic words. In Venice, we can expect nothing less from her.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Stefan Müller / Credit: Capitain Petzel / Film Stills: Yael Bartana
Capitain Petzel, Karl–Marx–Allee 45, 10178 Berlin–Mitte; map
Yael Bartana – Film Screenings: 13.04.2024 17h
@capitainpetzel
@yaelbartana
