SINGLE-CHANNEL Gravitas

Gilad Ratman

The Days of the Family of the Bell

05/03/2013 – 07/07/2013

CollectionsDes Moines Art Center, IowaMuseum of Contemporary Art ChicagoThe Israel Museum, JerusalemTel Aviv Museum of ArtHaifa Museum of ArtAmerican University Museum, Washington, DC

Special thanks to Jefferson Goddard of Aspect Ratio Projects in Chicago and to Braverman Gallery in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Gilad Ratman

BiographyBorn 1975, IsraelLives and works in Tel Aviv and New York

EducationMFA, Colombia University, NYBFA, Bezalel Academy for Art and Design, IsraelExchange student at School of Visual Arts, NY

Solo ExhibitionsThe 55th Venice Biennale – Israeli PavilionThe Days of the Family of the Bell, Aspect Ratio, Chicago Emerge Selection, Museum of Contemporary Art ChicagoThe Multipillory / The 588 Project, Ferenbalm-Gurbrü Station, KarlsruheHow soon is now, Garage Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow (Curated by Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, and Beatrix Ruf)Luma Foundation Discovery Award, Rencontres d’Arles, France (Nominated by Liam Gillick)The 588 Project / Multipillory, Braverman Gallery, Tel AvivDeep Sinking, Haifa Museum of Art (Curated by Ilana Tenenbaum)Forever Young, Bell Street Project Space, Vienna (Curated by FGS Gallery)Che Che The Gorgeous, Ferenbalm-Gurbrü Station - Gallery for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe (Curated by Lukas and Sebastian Baden) The end of Cordova, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (catalogue) 2004 (Curated by Sergio Edelsztein)Give her back or take me too, Tel Aviv Artist’s Studios Gallery

Selected Group ExhibitionsUNNATURAL, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida (Curated by Tami Katz-Freiman) The Band of the Family of the Bell, Braverman Gallery, Tel AvivThe Herzliya Contemporary Art Biennial, Israel (Curated by Ori Dessau)Blowing on a Hairy Shoulder / Grief Hunters, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (Curated by Doron Rabina)A Strange Attraction to the Beautiful and the Dreadful, Hendershot Gallery, New York(Curated by Maureen Sullivan)No Proud Scars, Please, Spattered Columns/Art Connects, New York, (Curated by Peter Duhon)Neo-Barbarism, 69 Rothschild Tel Aviv (Curated by Naomi Aviv and Noam Segal)What is the political, Moby- Bat-Yam Museum for Contemporary Art. (Curated by Maayan Amir)Greater NY, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, NY (Curated by Klaus Bisenbach, Connie Butler, and Neville Wakefield)Seedlings, Dallas Contemporary Art Center (Curated by Regine Basha)Young Israelis, Lesley Heller Workspace, NY (Curated by Lilly Wei)Green Honey, Ramiken Crucible Gallery, NY (Curated by Andrea Cashman and Borden Capalino)Arte Portugal 10, Lisbon (Curated by Paul Young)Overview: Israeli Video 2000–2010, Haifa Musem of Art (Curated by Sergio Edelsztein)

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Gilad Ratman

The Days of the Family of the Bell

entirelyunexpected4700 Grand Avenue Des Moines, Iowa 50312-2099 515.277.4405 www.desmoinesartcenter.org

Gilad Ratman’s video The Days of the Family of Bell (2012), begins with a single male figure dressed in a tight white t-shirt and yellow leggings, cautiously lifting one leg at a time in a careful attempt at balance and coordination. At one point, both legs are removed from the floor in what seems like an impossible, gravity defying feat. This sequence is followed by another, this time two men wearing nothing but boxer briefs, where the larger of the two is attempting to balance his corpulent body atop the smaller one, who is clearly displaying facial expressions of pain and anguish. This dramatic build up is followed by an inverted human pyramid of eight individuals, teetering and struggling, in a virtuosic display of athleticism and concentration that is followed by yet more impossible configurations of people atop people.

The tradition of the human pyramid can be traced through a myriad of cultures and geographic regions. The castellers of Catalonia, Spain for example, form human pyramids up to ten men high. The origin of this tradition dates back to the 18th century in the southern part of Catalonia where it remains a popular attraction during the Sant Magi Festival in August and during the Santa Tecla Festival in September. Its cultural significance, in fact, has been recognized by UNESCO in 2010 as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. In the Czech Republic, the youth sport movement and gymnastics organization, Sokol, which was founded in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindrich Fügner, considered their training significant from a physical, moral, and intellectual standpoint. Members of the Sokol movement occasionally posed in human pyramids in order to convey the physicality and heroics inherent in the principles of this organization. In India during the Hindu festival Krishna Janmashtami in Maharashtra, human pyramids are formed to reach pots filled with curd and butter as part of the Dahi Handi ritual, while in China, the same is done during their annual Chinese Bun Festival.

.ABOVE AND DETAIL RIGHT

The Days of the Family of the Bell, 2012

4 minutes 57 seconds

Single channel HD video, Edition 7/12

Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased

with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc., 2013.2

While spiritually aligned with these political, social, and cultural examples of gymnastic skill and dexterity, Ratman’s video, in fact, draws from a cinematic tradition of camera tricks and optical illusions developed around the beginning of the 20th century. The Days of the Family of the Bell is inspired by an obscure 1907 silent film by the Spanish film director Segundo de Chomón titled Les Kiri-Kis, acrobats Japonaises, in which a “family” of Japanese acrobats performs unbelievable stunts in front of the camera. Like Les Kiri-Kis, Ratman films his actors from above, while they squirm, wiggle, and “defy gravity” from the safety of the floor. Like much of Ratman’s other work, The Days of the Family of the Bell addresses his ongoing investigation into the nature of truth and the increasing difficulty in deciphering the real from the make believe as we consume more and more information from television, the internet, and social media. More profoundly though, the artist uses the metaphor of the human pyramid as his way of making a point about creating a social space where struggle and empathy can coexist. Through the contorted positions of his actors and their accompanying grimaces he points out the fundamental human need for interdependence while humorously and poignantly illustrating the pains, struggles, and rewards that can come from the give and take of true collaboration.

GILBERT VICARIO | SENIOR CURATORLes Kiri-Kis, acrobats Japonaises, 1907, directed by Segundo de Chomón