Zamach (Assassination) is the final part of Yael Bartana’s film trilogy, which premiered at …and Europe will be stunned at the 54th Venice Biennale. The exhibition is the official Polish participation at the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice in 2011. Bartana’s trilogy revolves around the activities of the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP), a political group that calls for the return of 3,300,000 Jews to the land of their forefathers. The films traverse a landscape scarred by the histories of competing nationalisms and militarisms, overflowing with the narratives of the Israeli settlement movement, Zionist dreams, anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and the Palestinian right of return.
Apart from realising the film trilogy, a new political movement has been established by the artist. In Zamach (Assassination), Bartana brings the dream of multinational community and a brand new Polish society to the ultimate test. The film takes place in a not too distant future during the funeral ceremony of the leader of the Jewish Renaissance Movement, who has been killed by an unidentified assassin.
It is by means of this symbolic death that the myth of the new political movement is unified — a movement which can become a concrete project to be implemented in Poland, Europe, or the Middle East in the days to come.
Co-producers: Artangel, UK; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Poland
Donated to: The Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
