Guy Ben-Ner: Flying Lessons

Fortunately, unlike in the title motif of the exhibition, Guy Ben-Ner did not have a crash landing, but we had to learn our own "Flying Lessons" because the artist missed his flight and thus cannot arrive in Oldenburg in time for the date of the artist talk. Therefore, unfortunately, we cannot offer you a talk with Guy Ben-Ner about his work, but as a substitute we will show the films that are not on view in the exhibition itself and that the artist would have talked about this evening. The academic team of the Edith Russ House for Media Art will provide a further introduction to Ben-Ner's work and will be available for questions and discussions.

Household (2001) is Ben-Ner's adaptation of the film Un condamné à mort s'est échappé by Robert Bresson (1956). The latter's story of a prisoner who spectacularly escapes from the clutches of the Nazis, however, relocates Ben-Ner to the absurd situation of being trapped under his son's crib and organizing his liberation with a series of absurd tools and actions.

Wild Boy (2004) also refers to a film as a template. Here Ben-Ner adapts Francois Truffaut's The Wolf Boy (L'enfant sauvage), the child raised in the wilderness is played by his son Amir, and Ben-Ner takes on the role of the doctor Jean Itard. In doing so, he also takes up the real-life private situation in which he had to take care of his son's upbringing at home at the time. As an adaptation of Truffaut's film, Wild Boy contains caricatural elements. It is nevertheless, overall, a depressing study of parental power and the socialization of a child.
Treehouse Kit (2005) was Ben-Ner's work representing Israel at the 2005 Venice Biennale, and the film ran alongside the installation of a tree made of furniture parts, in which Ben-Ner, as a stranded man, demonstrates the practical use of his sculpture. Thus, the tree gradually becomes a complete room with bed, chair, table and parasol, from which the sculpture was originally once created in the artistic process. The artist remains in the isolation in which he is stranded, but has made it homely civilized.
All three films once again very pointedly show Ben-Ner's humorous, ironic, but also very socially critical approach and are a good complement to the works on view in the exhibition. On the background, intentions and effects of Ben-Ner's works, we hope to be able to give approximately as profound information as the artist himself and would be pleased to welcome you this evening in the Edith Russ House.