Panel Discussion: "Break It Down"

Description

Israeli artist Nevet Yitzhak creates multi-media installations which absorb viewers in the construction of new narratives. Her works challenge perceptions of the past and raise questions about cultural heritage and collective forgetfulness.

Yitzhak documented the annual conservation of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s statue of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, which was damaged by a bomb in 1970. She has combined the chronicle of the statue’s conservation with archival imagery and digital animation to present an abstract and surreal picture of reality, connecting back to the trauma of the 1970 explosion. Through The Thinker Yitzhak explores vandalism and terrorism directed at art and the power of icons in secular culture—issues that are extremely relevant in light of the escalated destruction of ancient artifacts and monuments in the Middle East.

Nevet Yitzhak (1975) lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel. She holds an MFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She has had solo exhibitions in New York and throughout Israel. In 2014, she was awarded the Biata S. Kulimer Prize from the Israel Museum, and in 2012 she received The Shmuel Givon Prize from the Tel Aviv Museum, and the Creative Encouragement Award from Israel’s Ministry of Culture.

For more information, visit http://www.mocacleveland.org or call 216-421-8671.