INSTANCES OF ERASURE
Video Screening Program
October 19, 2023 - February 17, 2024

with Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat, Simon Wachsmuth & Isaac Chong Wai
Program by: Nazlı Yayla & Marjolein van der Meer

 

09.11.2023, 19h
Conversation: Itamar Gov & Zippora Elders

Platform 82 : Goethestraße 82, 10623 Berlin

 

Platform 82 | Zilberman cordially invites you to this conversation between artist Itamar Gov and curator and writer Zippora Elders. As part of Platform 82's initiating video screening program Instances of Erasure, Letters to Shevik addresses major questions of human existence, embedded in descriptions of everyday events. The film will be the starting point of a conversation about Itamar Gov's artistic work and practice.

Itamar Gov
Letters to Shevik, 2021
One channel video and sound installation, 15’

From 1987 until his death, Isaac Katz, the artist's great-grandfather, was writing letters to his deceased wife, Bat-Sheva (also known as Shevik), on a weekly basis.  In these letters, 238 in all, he chronicled his everyday activities, reminisced old memories, and reflected on the nature of old age, solitude, and love. This video and sound installation takes an epistolary form and contemplates writing as an act of self-preservation and seeking solace as well as a ritual of intimate exchange.

Approaching forgotten micro-histories as a means to shed light on vast socio-political landscapes, the starting point of Gov’s projects is an inquiring scepticism towards cultural traditions, conventions and gestures that are considered self-evident. His works are based on ongoing research and revolve around the intersection of art and politics, highlighting the strong tension between the known and the supposed, and challenging any assumption of clear borders between facts and falsehoods, reality and imagination. Never providing a full and complete picture, he invites viewers to engage with the elements of the works and to become part of an inquisitive process.

 

Read more about Itamar Gov here.

 

Zippora Elders is a curator and writer working from Berlin and Amsterdam. Currently she is the Head of the Curatorial Department & Outreach of the Gropius Bau in Berlin. Previously she was director of Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen in Amsterdam's vicinity, where she has since 2016 increased the visibility of this UNESCO heritage site as a thriving retreat for contemporary art and ecological exchange. In 2019 she also became co-curator of Sonsbeek 20-24: Force Times Distance - On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies. Formerly she was a.o. curator at Foam, museum for photography in Amsterdam and editor of Foam Magazine. She is active as an advisor, jury member and board member for art (educational) institutions as well as (crossover) organisations in art, heritage, contemporary music, nightculture and journalism.

 

Platform 82  powered by Zilberman is a new art space that aims to bring together artists, curators and institutions from different corners of the world, generating dialogue through conversations, presentations, publications, and exchange programs.

 

Instances of Erasure 

Instances of Erasure brings together 8 video works by 8 artists, accompanied by a series of conversations. Running from October 19th 2023 until February 17th 2024, two videos by two artists are on view roughly every four weeks, with conversations between artists and guests. With films by Bani Abidi, Sena Başöz, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Guido Casaretto, Isaac Chong Wai, Itamar Gov, İz Öztat and Simon Wachsmuth. Guests include Sam Bardaouil, Füsun Türetken, Hajra Haider Karrar and Marianna van der Zwaag.

Instances of Erasure delves into the theme of erasure. Through their visual narratives, artists invite the viewer to contemplate the delicate threads that connect memory, history, and the shaping of identity. It encompasses urban structures, architectural fragments and unseen traces that enable one to re-read social and personal histories.