Talks
Ariel Reichman, Nir Evron, Omer Krieger
Am I Safe?, Spectres and Vectors
28 February 2025, 6pm
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AM I SAFE? The question is as complex as it is elementary. The answer depends on a number of factors that concern all of the mosaic stones of our current living situation. We cannot get an overview of all of them; not all of them matter equally. And yet we can answer quickly, because in the end it essentially points to the individual feeling of each of us: “Do I feel safe right now?” Ariel Reichman raises this question as a kind of preface to his exhibition. I AM SAFE can be read on the neon lights outside in front of the gallery building. Or I AM NOT SAFE — depending on the answer we ourselves give by pressing a button in the exhibition or online at iamnotsafe. If we press NO, all of the letters of I AM NOT SAFE light up. If we press YES, the small word NOT goes out: I AM SAFE. Our emotional state becomes visible—and so subjectively and temporarily as the question per se allows. It cannot be made objective and can scarcely be differentiated, because if we were to answer it in the absoluteness with which it is posed, the rigorous answer would always have to be: No, because there is no total safety. But I can certainly feel safe. At least sufficiently safe to answer the question with YES, even if it is/was only for the moment and in reference to those aspects that are foremost for me right now.
Spectres and Vectors Rehearsing the Spectacle of Spectres takes its title from the opening words of a poem by Anadad Eldan (b. 1924), a member of Kibbutz Be’eri, a collective community in southern Israel that was tragically hit during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
The video was filmed by Evron and Krieger entirely in and around Be’eri and premiered at the Kibbutz Gallery in 2014. A decade later, in the wake of Be’eri’s devastation and rebuilding, the video takes on an altered resonance. It stands as an unintended archive and monument of a place irrevocably changed. The images of Be’eri—its open landscapes, its communal spaces, its voices—now bear an unbearable weight, forcing a new and urgent reading of both the work and the historical moment it now finds itself within.
Also screened is Nir Evron’s Oriental Arch (2009), a meditation on time, memory, and loss, filmed at the Seven Arches Hotel in East Jerusalem. The film explores architecture as a repository of history, inviting us to consider how places silently preserve the past and reflect the shifting realities that shape them.
Ariel Reichman (b. 1979 South Africa. Lives and works in Berlin.) Freud preferred the form of the silent word, that is, of the symptom, which is the trace of a story. This would be a good description of Reichman’s practice: he creates objects and artistic artifacts that evoke feelings of confusion and conflicting emotions. Often they cannot be resolved, and in that way they are analogous to the contemporary conditio humana. Reichman creates an ambiguous and subtle play between private and collective memory, apparent idyll, and subliminal brutality. He has exhibited at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, KW, Kunstverein in Hamburg as well as Goodman gallery and PSM among others. In 2025 he will open a solo exhibition at the Museumsquartier Osnabrück.
Nir Evron (b.1974, Herzelia, Israel, lives and works in Berlin) explores the construction of political and social histories through films and videos. Evron’s works are often hybrids, combining historical research and media inquiries. He has exhibited internationally, with solo shows at the Jewish Museum, Berlin; LAXART, Los Angeles; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, among others. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those at the New Museum, New York; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; and the 6th Berlin Biennale.
Omer Krieger (born 1975 in Tel Aviv, lives in Berlin) makes performative actions, political situations and civic choreographies in public spaces, as well as video and media works. In his work, he explores the relationships between art, politics and action, composes collective bodily practices and activates places of assembly. In addition to leading the performative research and action group “Public Movement” (2006-2011) and the “Under the Mountain: New Public Art Festival” in Jerusalem (2011-2015), he was the founding artistic director of the “1:1 Center for Art and Politics” in Tel Aviv from 2018-2020. His works have been shown recently at the Gorki Theater, Georg Kolbe Museum, Jewish Museum in Berlin and Magasin ||| Jaffa.