Julita Wójcik, "View Maker", 2004, video still, collection of Israel Museum in Jerusalem, photo: press materials
Julita Wójcik is among the artists exploring the culture of DIY and the role of directions in our daily lives at the exhibition at the Israel Museum
Society is beset by directions from every angle. Some are imposed as guidelines or regulations, while others are welcomed by choice in the form of assembly kits, recipes for success, and other manuals. The exhibition, developed for family audiences, explores how prominent contemporary artists from Israel and around the world have responded to today's "Do it Yourself" culture and the role of instructions for everyday living.
Life: A User's Manual features some fifty paintings, sculptures, video works and installations that incorporate the visual language of instruction manuals. Some of the artists, like Mircea Cantor and Polish artist Julita Wójcik, create their own absurd or irrational sets of instructions, while others, like Guy Ben Ner and Gal Weinstein, take a child-like approach in their work using humor and irony to disrupt the conventional use of instructions and to emphasize the gap between written manuals and reality. All the artists featured use instructions as a means for creating original and personal works of art that critiques contemporary culture and its tendency to suppress individuality.
In most of the works, instructions are subverted, emphasising the absurdity and internal contradictions often found in reality. Works made by prominent contemporary artists from Israel and abroad are exhibited alongside objects from the Israel Museum's collections. Visitors, adults and children alike, will find instructions throughout the exhibition, which they choose to either follow or ignore.
Participating artists: Boaz Arad, Maya Attoun, Ido Bar-El, Guy Ben-Ner, Aya Ben Ron, George Brecht, Grisha Bruskin, Mircea Cantor, Michael Druks, Marcel Duchamp, Yair Garbuz, Rodney Graham, Irit Hemmo, Paul Jackson, Joe Jones, Yoav Miller, Tal Mor, Damian Ortega, Benjamin Patterson, Philip Rantzer, Yair Reshef and Roee Kremer, Gil Marco Shani, Andy Warhol, Gal Weinstein, Julita Wójcik, Yuval Yairi.
Curator: Aya Miron
The exhibition runs from April 12, 2011 through February 1, 2012.
Israel Museum in Jerusalem
Weinstein Gallery
Ruppin Rd.
Source: press release