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Art by Amir Cohen
Art
Cohen’s work is less a talisman than a kind of atavistic pulse, a sign of memory, and a statement as to our essential tactility. – Dr. Robert C Morgan, Art historian and critic
About
The Other
Home - Land - Body - Scape
Artist Statement
The inherent key concept of ‘The Other’ is a core of my artwork. The framework of the Home-Land-Body-Scape on-going art projects involve thoughts, and notions of habitat and nomadism, which drives me to action. In order to explore, define and communicate, I question the meanings of ‘Othering’. – Amir Cohen, Projects Artist.
The right to be a headless knight
Ronny Someck
“To write,” says Amos Oz, “one needs a roof, a grandmother, and a wound.” Amir Cohen has a German wound and a grandmother who has been piling up books on his head. He has no roof, since he has no real home. He is still a wandering Jew. There may be roofs without houses in Marc Chagall’s paintings. Amir Cohen will never take a mortgage for such a home. For him, Chagall belongs to another small town.
He photographs the head. From behind. In black-and-white. The photograph can be a poster for a movie on a sumo fighter but also a metaphor for the word alone. The black-and-white is deliberately blurred. The paint tubes come from Chagall ‘s paintings.
The same alone appears in the photograph of the sand along the beach. The associations range from the child’s sand castle to the attempt to sculpt the eroticism of the word “breast” in this very sand. The associations are obviously irrelevant. They are merely an abstraction of the head we saw earlier.
The word head figures in many idiomatic expressions: to keep one’s head, to lose one’s head, to make head, etc. The attempt to replace head with sand yields the following possibilities: to keeps one’s sand, to lose one’s sand, to make sand.
How does all this dialogue with the three photographs in which Amir Cohen makes do without the head? This is another gallop. The body is a bookcase. The sumo fighter bends his back slightly and seems to be also a knight. The horses he rides are invisible. The territory is erased. If it has a map, it is a silent map. The photographs promise that soon, very soon, latitudinal and longitudinal lines will be drawn on it, and then he may raise his head. In the meantime, Amir Cohen vigorously insists on his right to be a headless knight.
Ronny Someck, Poet and visual artist.
Biographical notes
Selected one-person exhibitions and projects
2018 Artist Book, Ridings – Amir Cohen w/Yossi Alfi.
2012 Artist Book, Uncle Salim – Homeland – Amir Cohen w/Ronny Someck.
2007 Mining, The NB Academy of Art & Design (Catalogue).
2007 Perception of the other, ZZIK Gallery, Munich, Germany (Catalogue).
2005 Pole Position, Artura Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel.
2004 Dogmaville / Lebensraum / Atlas II, Apex International, Edinburgh, Scotland.
2004 Dogmaville / Lebensraum / Atlas, Senko Gallery, Denmark. (catalogue).
2002 ‘Series No. 1-5’,‘Bodies’ Project, Orensanz center for the arts, NYC. (catalogue).
1998 ‘Local Index’ Givatayim Theater, Israel. w/Yoram Reshef (catalogue)
Selected group exhibitions
2024 The Berliners, The 4th wall Gallery, Berlin.
2023 The International Artists' Museum - Historic actions, Israel. (Catalogue).
2020 Space, Givatayim city theater, Israel. (catalogue).
2019-2020 Integrated Photography, 7th Int. Photography Symposium + Exhibition Ladislav Sutnar Gallery, Pilsen, Czech Republic
2015 Human Portray Inside/Out, The Annexe Gallery, London, UK
2008 Bodies, Macondo Gallery, London, UK
2008 Light Project, The Fusion Arts Museum, New York, NY
2008 Tish ‘Earth’ Symposium, Orensanz Foundation, New York, NY
2008 Portraits, A5 Magazine, Saluna, Tel-Aviv, Israel. (catalogue).
2007 Bodies, Dana Gallery, Yad-Mordehai, Israel
2006 Body of Space, ‘Machon Hamayim City gallery, Givatayim, Israel
2005 ‘Lovemarks’, ‘bait ba’namal’, Tel Aviv, Israel,
2005 The International Artists’ Museum, Artura Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel,
2005 Poles apart poles together, Venice Biennale, Italy. (catalogue).
2003 ‘Wandering Library’, The International Artists’ Museum, Venice, Italy. (catalogue).
2002 ‘Markers’, Theatre Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland,
2002 ‘From Venice to Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Fair, Israel. (catalogue).
2001 ‘Markers II’, EAM Gallery, Kassel-city of Documenta, Germany. (catalogue),
2001 ‘Series No. 5’, ‘Israel Rail’, Tel Aviv, Israel. (catalogue),
2001 ‘Markers’ I, The International Artists’ Museum, Venice Biennale, Italy. (catalogue).
1999 ‘Save the house’, The International Artists’ Museum, NYC.
1999 ‘White Art’, SOTHEBY’S Tel Aviv, Israel. (catalogue),
1999 ‘It Turns-Original or Fake’, Givatayim Theater, Israel. (catalogue),
1999 ‘New Dimension’, ‘Series 1’, Bak Science Center, Jerusalem, Israel. (catalogue),
1999 ‘B’tselem’- Anniversary Exhibition, Givatayim Theater, Israel. (catalogue),
1999 ‘Bodies’ Project, ‘Beimartef’- ‘Habimah’, Israel National Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel. (catalogue).
Selected Art collections
Giza collection, Evron collection, Merhav group of companies collection, Hava and Shimon Topor collection, New York, Senko collection, Denmark.
Selected Publications
2010 DériveLab / Heterotopia, Centre for Creative Collaboration, Essay and participated in this Lab, project funded by University of London.
'Heterotopia Provocation’ with ‘DériveLab', Collaborative, interdisciplinary show, artists and students, supported by Goldsmiths.
2009 Memory instinct in a digital era, Mymementovid video installation, Catalogue, 53RD Venice Biennale. (Catalogue).
2007 Perception of the other, ZZIK Gallery, Munich, Germany (Catalogue).
2001 Markers I, outdoor art banners, 49TH Venice Biennale, Plateau of humankind. (Catalogue).
Initiatives, curations and selected art projects branding
2023 Future.Intelligence.Image, HAC / Black box, Jerusalem, Israel
2022 NUINX, On-Going artivism project I created to promote equality for all.
2011 Markers VIII, Mapping, during the 54TH Venice Biennale
2010 Mymementovid, On-Going projrct, DériveLab / Heterotopia, C4CC, London University
2009 Mymementovid, On-Going projrct, for the 53RD Venice Biennale
2009 Markers VII, Culture kiosk, for the 53RD Venice Biennale
2007 Markers VI, Divine.in.tent 70 tents installation, for the 52ND Venice Biennale
2007 Markers VI, Divine.in.tent 70 tents installation, for the Documenta, Kassel, Germany
2005 Markers V, Poles apart/Poles together installation, Grand Canal, for the 51ST Venice Biennale