Maya Zack
Made to Measure | videos and drawings
Curated by Giorgia Calò
September 24 - December 1, 2012
Works
Press Release
On Monday, September 24th at 6 p.m., Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch will open the third chapter of the project About Paper. Israeli Contemporary Art with a solo exhibition by Maya Zack entitled Made to Measure / videos and drawings.
The gallery hosts an installation looking like a sort of office that has been filled with paperwork, metal shelves and cardboard boxes, in order to partly recreate the setting that appears in the video Black and White Rule (2011), screened inside the installation itself. Maya Zack explores the relationship between video and drawing, which are often used in her works, giving her visual language a twofold function: in the video, the drawings are the practical tools used by the characters to measure things, and take the form of equations, archive images and diagrams. At the same time, the drawings on paper of various sizes exhibited in the gallery are meant to complete and extend the plot of the video, which therefore becomes both the signified and the signifier.
The perceptual distortion that blurs reality and representation is also emphasized by the exhibition of works on paper, which depict full-scale characters while they are measuring and examining the things that surround them. Their way of mapping and redefining space, in an almost obsessive fashion, causes a feeling of suspense in the spectator – an atmosphere that also pervades the video itself, which plays on the idea of a narrative pause that coincides with a moment of tension, in which characters once again perform very definite gestures.
The whole exhibition therefore focuses on the constant dialogue between the inside and the outside, between sense and nonsense, by creating real and fictitious environments that appear like cold, sterilized places filled with the presence/absence of humans.
In creating these works, Maya Zack started from the term “Tatort”, a German word that literally translates as “crime scene”. Here the word is interpreted in a wider sense, referring to a specific place in which something has happened. Thus the characters that people the drawings in the gallery, although in a state of “apparent death”, are actually investigators meditating on the ambiguous relationship between reality and its representation.
The gallery’s Project Room hosts Mother Economy (2007), a video where the artist stages her own personal strategy for developing an alternative kind of memory, which does not passively reproduce the past, but rather reworks and reinterprets it. Mother Economy, presented in 2008 at New York’s Jewish Museum, again looks into the solitary, compulsive gestures of a woman as she tries to measure several objects with almost scientific precision, in a home setting. The other family members, although absent, are evoked by the objects that people the home, while the diegetic audio of the radio helps evoke the historical context, in which a dramatically real chaos clashes with the apparently orderly, controlled space of the house.
Born in 1976, Maya Zack lives and works in Tel Aviv. She has exhibited in the most important museums of Israel (Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Museum of Art, Tel Aviv). Outside Israel, she presented her works at New York’s Jewish Museum and at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, and is represented in the permanent collection of the latter. She has won several awards, including Berlin’s Celeste Kunstpreis, with Mother Economy (2008); the Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design of Jerusalem, with Living Room (2010); the 13th International Film Festival in Patras City, Greece, with Black and White Rule (2011). In 2011 she won the Idud Hayetzira Award, granted by the Israeli Ministry of Culture, as well as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Prize. Her works are represented in many private collections in England, France, Belgium, the US, and Israel.
Artist Biography
Born in 1976, lives and works in Tel Aviv
Studies
1996 - 2000 (B.F.A) The Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design, Fine Art Department, Jerusalem.
Magna Cum Laude.
1999 - 2000 Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee, Student Exchange Program
2004 - 2010 (for M.A.) Tel Aviv University, Arts faculty. Interdisciplinary Arts Program
Lecturer
Tel Aviv University Department of Film & Television
Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design Jerusalem, Fine art and New Media departments.
Artist Grants and Awards
2010 Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design, by Adi Foundation and Israel Museum Jerusalem.
2009 The New Israeli Foundation For Cinema and Television
2008 Israel Lottery Council Grant For The Arts
2008 Celeste Kunstpreis, Art Prize Berlin, 1st prize Artist Category
2008 Berinale Talent Campus, Berlin Intrenational Film Festival
2007 Israel Lottery Council Grant For The Arts
2007 The New Israeli Foundation For Cinema and Television
2005 The Center of Contemporary Art Fund for Video
2005 The Young Artist Award, The Ministry of Education and Culture
2002 The Center of Contemporary Art Fund for Video
2002 Tel Aviv Municipality, The Arts Department
2000 Excellence Award, Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design, Fine Arts Department, Jerusalem
Film Awards - for “Mother Economy” (Video Work)
2008 Special Mention, Imaginaria International Film Festival, Conversano, Italy
2008 Celeste Kunstpreis, Berlin, Art prize - Artist category award
2008 Special prize from “Ideas Museum” , Int. Festival of Independent Cinematography “KinoLev”. Lviv, Ukraine
2007 Best Foreign Film Award, Szemletek Visionaudial Film Festival – Pec's, Hungary
2007 Students Jury Special Prise, Szemletek Visionaudial Film Festival – Pec's, Hungary
Solo Exhibition
2011 Living Room, The Jewish Museum, New York, U.S.A, Curator: Aviva Weintraub.
2011 Camera Obscura, Galerie Natalie Seroussi, Paris. Curator: Marie Shek.
2010 Mother Economy - video and drawings, CUC Gallery, Berlin.
2010 Living Room, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv
2010 Black and White Rule – Open Set, Yaffo 23, Bezalel Gallery Jerusalem.
2009 Reading Room. Bialik House Museum, Tel Aviv. Curator: Marie Shek.
2008 Mother Economy The Jewish Museum, Media Center Gallery, New York. Curator: Andrew Ingall.
2008 Nalbishech Salmat Beton Vamelet, Be’eri gallery, Kibutz be’eri. Curator: Ziva Yelin.
2005 Videos + drawings, Alon Gallery, Ramat Hasharon
2004 Concrete and Cement, Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv (with Raya Bruckenthal)
2004 Mockument, Alon Gallery, Ramat Hasharon
2002 The Baron E.T. von Home, Artists Studios Gallery, Tel Aviv (with Raya Bruckenthal)
2001 Hier seid Ihr zusammen, Kav 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv.
Selected Group Exhibition
2011 Heimatkunde, 10th anniversary exhibition, The Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany. Curator: Margret Kampmeyer.
2010 Neo-Barbarism, Rothchild 69, curators: Naomi Aviv, Noam Segal.
2010 Rupture & Repair, Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design. Artists House Jerusalem. Curator: Emily Bilski,Aviva Kat-Manor
2010 Ark, Mani House, Leumi Gellery, curator: Ido Barel
2010- Suspended Spaces #1. Maison de la culture, Amiens, France.
2009- Childhood Stories, whiteBOX e.V., Kultfabrik Gallery, Munihc, Curator: Yael Katz Ben Shalom.
2009 - Art TLV, The Tel Aviv Art Biannale, curator: Edna Moshensohn.
2009 - Drama of Identities, Curator: Irena Gordon, Beth Hatefutsoth Museum, Tel Aviv.
2009 - Seafaring-route. Tel Aviv. Berlin. Beirut.Artneuland Berlin, Curator: Yael Katz Ben Shalom.
2009 - “Reel Mothers”, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido. Curator: Andrea Liss.
2009 -"Paper Works", The Israel Museum - Anna Ticho House, Jerusalem. Curator: Ronit Sorek.
2009 - Beton Poetry, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. Curator: Yehudit Mezkel.
2008 - Invideo, International Exhibition of Video Art and Cinema Beyond. Milan, Italy.
2008 - From Punk To Pink, Moti Hasson Gellry, NY, USA.
2008 - Figge von Rosen Galerie – Cologne, Germany
2008 - Merma(i)d, Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel. with Raya Bruckenthal.
2008 - Rishon Le’zion Biannale, Rishon Le’zion, Israel.
2008 - Celeste Kunstpreis Finalists, At the former “Patzenhofer Brauerei-Friedrichshöhe, Berlin.
2008 - “Dead End”, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv. Curator: Diana Dallal.
2008 - “Goyim”, The new Gallery, Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem.
2007 - “Guilt & Gelt”, Artneuland Gallery Berlin, Curator: Yael Katz Ben Shalom.
2006 - Videoland, Artneuland Gallery Berlin, Curator: Yael Katz Ben Shalom.
2006 - The Israel Museum, Culture ministry Award winners. Curator: Amitai Mendelsohn.
2005 - "Not Alone", The Haifa University Gallery. Curator: Ruti Director.
2005 - The Drawing Biannale, The Jerusalem Artists House. Dror Burstein
2004 - A Homage to Hanoch Levin, The Haifa Museum of Art. Cutator: Daniella Talmor.
2002 - “Positive Discrimination”, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Curator: Ellen Ginton.
2002 - “Something Local”, the Digital Art Lab, Holon
2002 - Guanacju Biannale, Korea
2001 - 'The Armoury Show”, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Curator: Ellen Ginton.
Festivals Screenings
2011 Ourense International Film Festival, Aurense, Galiza, Spain
2011 Women Make Waves Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan
2011 BUSHO-Budapest Short Film Festival, Hungary
2011 The International Festival for Film and Culture - Panorama of Independent Film and Video Makers, Patras, Greece.
2011 International Film Festival Jerusalem, Israel
2011 Emegensee media arts festival, Berlin, Germany.
2011 Geschichte(n) in Bewegung, Das Filmforum der HBK, Braunschweig Grmany. Curators: Alex Gerbaulet, Prof. Michael Brynntrup
2011 5 artists 5 films, Pécsi Galéria és Vizuális Muvészeti Muhely, Pécs, Hungary. Curators: Katja Melzer, Hajnal Szolga
2010 LACE -Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LA, U.S.
2010 Werkleitz Festival, Halle, Germany
2009 “Dreams and Disasters" Top Kino, Vienna, Austria
2009 POV, Israeli Photography Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel
2009 100% Tel Aviv, White Night, Paris, Curator: Marie Schek.
2009 45th Pesaro Film Festival, Pesaro, Italy
2009 Cologne Cinemateque, Keolner Filmhous, Germany
2009 Hull Short film Festival, Hull, England
2009 Transart, Rennes, France
2008 Winterthur Short film Festival, Winterthur, Switzerland
2008 Invideo, Exhibition for video Art and film beyond, Milan, Italy
2008 Freewaves, LA 11th festival of new media arts, “Holly-Would”, Los Angeles, USA
2008 Busho, Budapest Short film Festival, Hungary
2008 Figge von Rosen Galerie, Cologne, Germany
2008 Imaginaria International Film Festival, Conversano, Italy
2008 Hamburg International Short Film Festival
2008 International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Egilsstaðir, Iceland
2008 “KinoLevchyk”, International Festival of Video Art. leviv Ukraine.
2007 Trunk, The Nordic Video-Art Festival, Östersund, Sweden
2007 Izmir International Short Film Festival, Turkey
2007 Haifa Cinematheque, Israel
2007 Szemletek Visionaudial Film Festival – Pec's, Hungary
2007 Haifa International Film Festival, Israel
2007 Artneuland Gallery, Berlin
2004 Video Zone, The 2th Video Biennale, Tel Aviv
2002 "My Home is Your Home", Video Festival, New York
Filmography
2010 Black & White Rule / 2007 Mother Economy / 2005 Concrete and Cement 2: Door to Door
2004 Meme 2. The Units / 2003 Meme 1 / 2003 Concrete and Cement 1:Preperations for the Ceremony
2000 Hier Seid Ihr Zusamen
Selected collections
Israel Museum Jerusalem / Jewish Museum Berlin/ Beth Hatefutsoth Museum Tel Aviv / ORS Doron Sebbag art collection /
The Shpilman Institute for Photography /Wendy Fisher Collection, London / Natalie Serousi Paris
Born in Israel, 1976.
Lives and works in Tel Aviv.
Education
2000
B.F.A Magna Cum Laude at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Fine Art Department, Jerusalem, Israel
2000
Student Exchange Program at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee, Germany
2012
M.A., Interdisciplinary Arts Program, Arts Faculty at Tel Aviv University, Israel
Solo Exhibitions
2020
Maya Zack, la mémoire en action, Mahj - Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme, Paris, France
2016
Memory Trilogy, MLF | Marie-Laure Fleisch, Brussels, Belgium
Counterlight, MLF | Marie-Laure Fleisch, Rome, Italy
Maya Zack: Counterlight, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2014
Outlined Absence, Taiga Creative Space, St. Petersburg, Russia
The Mystical Shabbat, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2013
The Shabbat Room installation, part of the new permanent exhibition Unsere Stadt! Judisches Wien bis heute. The Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria
Maya Zack: videos at Moving Image video fair, London, United Kingdom with Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch
Special project, The Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria
Apparent Death, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2012
Maya Zack solo show, Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery, Rome, Italy
2011
Living Room, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA. Curator: Aviva Weintraub
Camera Obscura, curated by Marie Shek, Galerie Natalie Seroussi, Paris, France
2010
Mother Economy - video and drawings, curated by Avi Feldman, CUC Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Living Room, Alon Segev Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Black and White Rule – Open Set, Yaffo 23, Bezalel Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
2009
Reading Room, curated by Marie Shek, Bialik House Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
2008
Mother Economy, curated by Andrew Ingall, The Jewish Museum, Media Center Gallery, New York, USA
Nalbishech Salmat Beton Vamelet, curated by Ziva Yelin, Be’eri Gallery, Kibutz be’eri, Israel
2005
Videos + Drawings, Alon Gallery, Ramat Hasharon, Israel
2004
Concrete and Cement, (with Raya Bruckenthal), Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Mockument, Alon Gallery, Ramat Hasharon, Israel
2002
The Baron E.T. von Home, (with Raya Bruckenthal), Artists Studios Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2001
Hier seid Ihr zusammen, Kav 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2021
Zoology, curated by Benedict Vandaele, Zebrastraat, Ghent, Belgium
2020
Bodyscapes, curated by Dr. Adina Kamien-Kazhdan, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
As She Transforms, curated by Irena Gordon, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem
Film screening, curated by Judith Schlossberg, Keter Cinema, Ma’amuta, Hansen House, Jerusalem
2019
Counterlight, film screening, FIFA- Festival International du Film sur l'Art - Musée McCord - Théâtre J. Armand Bombardier, Montreal, Canada$
Kartonage, Kupferman Collection, Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, Israel
MEMORY TRILOGY, film screening, 27th Jewish Film Festival Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Walk the Line, as part of The 7th Biennale for Drawing | Traces VII – Action Line, curated by Irena Gordon, The Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem, Israel
Winners of the Ministry of Culture and Sport Prizes in Art and Design for 2017 and 2018, The Ashdod Art Museum, Ashdod, Israel
2018
Hidden Workers, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
On Guard, Hansen House, Jerusalem, Israel
Local Contemporary Print, curated by Irena Gordon and Tamar Gispan-Greenberg, Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem, Israel
Counterlight, film screening, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Munster, Germany
CONSTRUCTING THE WORLD: ART AND ECONOMY 1919-1939 AND 2008-2018, curated by Dr. Eckhart Gillen, Dr. Ulrike Lorenz and Dr. Sebastian Baden, Mannhein Kunsthalle, Mannhein, Germany
NeuLicht II - Land von Salz und Honig, curated by Avi Feldman and Nirith Nelson, Neulicht Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
Evoking Reality, curated by Renate Wiehager and Nadine Isabelle Henrich, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2017
Menorah – Cult, History and Myth, Musei Vaticani – Braccio di Carlo Magno, Vatican City
2016
Under the Press of History, The Jerusalem Print Workshop, Jerusalem, Israel
Das Kapital. Schuld- Territorium - Utopie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
2015
Bibliology, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Petach Tikva, Israel
Without Flour, The Negev Museum of Art, Be'er Sheba, Israel
2014
Back to Berlin, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzilya, Israel
Drawingroom, curated by Peter Weiermair, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
2013
Drawingroom, curated by Prof. Peter Weiermair, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichta, Germany
2012
Pluriel-Regards sur l'art contemporain israélien, Villa Emerige, Paris, France
Private/Corporate VII - Doron Sebbag Art Collection, ORS Ltd., Tel Aviv, and Daimler Kunst Sammlung, Stuttgart/Berlin, curated by Renate Wiehager, Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, Germany
In Action, Performance, Actionism and Concept, from the Charim Collection, Salon Dahlman, Berlin, Germany
The Winners, Recipients of 'Idud Hayetzira' Award by the Israeli Ministry of Culture, curated by Naomi Aviv, Petach Tikva Museum, Petah Tikva, Israel
3rd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, curated by Kathrin Becker, Russia
Recipients of 'Idud Hayetzira' Award by the Israeli Ministry of Culture, Petach Tikva Museum, Petah Tikva, Israel
2011
Magic Lantern: Recent Acquisitions in Contemporary Art, curated by Suzanne Landau, Amitai MendelsohnIsrael Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Heimatkunde (How German is it? 30 Artists' Notion of Home) Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany
2010
Neo-Barbarism, curated by Naomi Aviv, Noam Segal Rothschild 69, Tel Aviv, Israel
Rupture & Repair, Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design, curated by Emily Bilski, Aviva Kat-Manor, Artists House Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Ark, curated by Ido Barel, Mani House, Leumi Gellery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Suspended Spaces #1, Maison de la culture, Amiens, France
2009
Childhood Stories, curated by Yael Katz Ben Shalom, whiteBOX e.V., Kultfabrik Gallery, Munich, Germany
Art TLV, curated by Edna Moshensohn, The Tel Aviv Art Biennale, Tel Aviv, Israel
Drama of Identities, curated by Irena Gordon, Beth Hatefutsoth Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Seafaring-route, Tel Aviv. Berlin. Beirut, curated by Yael Katz Ben Shalom, Artneuland Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Paper Works, curated by Ronit Sorek, The Israel Museum, Anna Ticho House, Jerusalem, Israel
Reel Mothers, curated by Andrea Liss, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido (CA), USA
Tel Aviv Mon Amour, curated by Galit Semel, The Office Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Shirat Ha'beton, curated by Yehudit Mezkel, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
2008
Invideo, International Exhibition of Video Art and Cinema Beyond, Milan, Italy
From Punk To Pink, Moti Hasson Gellry, NY, USA
Raum für Video, Philipp von Rosen Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Merma(i)d, curated by Raya Bruckenthal, Inga Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Rishon Le’zion Biennale, Rishon Le’zion, Israel
Celeste Kunstpreis Finalists, At the former Patzenhofer Brauerei-Friedrichshöhe, Berlin, Germany
Dead End, curated by Diana Dallal, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Goyim, The New Gallery, Teddy Stadium, Jerusalem, Israel
2007
Guilt & Gelt, curated by Yael Katz Ben Shalom, Artneuland Gallery Berlin, Germany
2006
Videoland, curated by Yael Katz Ben Shalom, Artneuland Gallery, Berlin, Germany
The Israel Museum, curated by Amitai Mendelsohn, Jerusalem, Israel Culture Ministry Award Winners
2005
Not Alone, curated by Ruti Director, The Haifa University Gallery, Haifa, Israel
The Drawing Biennale, The Jerusalem Artists House, Jerusalem, Israel
2004
A Homage to Hanoch Levin, curated by Daniella Talmor, The Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel
2002
Positive Discrimination, curated by Ellen Ginton, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Something Local, the Digital Art Lab, Holon, Israel
Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
2001
The Armoury Show, curated by Ellen Ginton, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Grants / Awards / Residencies
2013
SIP Grant
2012
Israel Lottery Council Grant for the Arts
2011
Idud Hayetzira Award, The Israeli Ministry of Culture
Isracard and Tel Aviv Museum of Art Prize
Artis Grant Recipient
2011
International Summer Academy for Artists-Researchers Finland. Kuva - Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki, Finland
2010
Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design, by Adi Foundation and Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
2010
JAI (Jewish Artists Initiative of Southern California), Los Angeles, USA
2009
The New Israeli Foundation For Cinema and Television
2008
Israel Lottery Council Grant For The Arts
Celeste Kunstpreis, Art Prize Berlin, 1st Prize Artist Category
Artis Grant Recipient
2007
Israel Lottery Council Grant For The Arts
The New Israeli Foundation For Cinema and Television
2005
The Center of Contemporary Art Fund for Video
The Young Artist Award, The Israeli Ministry of Culture
2002
The Center of Contemporary Art Fund for Video
Tel Aviv Municipality, The Arts Department
2000
Excellence Award, Bezalel, Academy of Art and Design, Fine Arts Department, Jerusalem, Israel
Film Awards for "Counterlight", "Mother Economy" & "Black and White Rule" (Videos)
2016
Winner, Short Film Competition, Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Jerusalem, Israel
2011
Special Award "Poetry of The Image", The 13th Intonational Film Festival, Patras City, Greece
2008
Special Mention, Imaginaria International Film Festival, Conversano (BA), Italy
Celeste Kunstpreis, Berlin, Art Prize - Artist Category Award
Special prize "Ideas Museum", Int. Festival of Independent Cinematography "KinoLev", Lviv, Ukraine
2007
Best Foreign Film Award, Szemletek Visionaudial Film Festival – Pec's, Hungary
Students Jury Special Prize, Szemletek Visionaudial Film Festival – Pec's, Hungary
Collections
Public, corporate and private collections include:
Israel Museum Jerusalem, Israel
Jewish Museum Berlin, Germany
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
Beth Hatefutsoth Museum Tel Aviv, Israel
ORS Doron Sebbag Art Collection Tel Aviv, Israel
SIP-The Shpilman Institute for Photography, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel
Alongside international private collections