13 Feb 2011

Ofri Cnaani: The Sota Project at Kunsthalle Galapagos, NY

Ofri Cnaani: The Sota Project

Opening reception Wednesday, February 16th, 7-9PM
Kunsthalle Galapagos 16 Main St. DUMBO
Exhibition runs: February 16 - April 23, 2011

Kunsthalle Galapagos is pleased to present 'The Sota Project,' an immersive, multilayered video installation that reenacts a controversial text from the Talmud. A tale of two sisters, bound together in symbiotic loyalty that unfolds in both time and three-dimensional space. Housed in an expansive, historic horse-stable above Galapagos Art Space, Ofri Cnaani's ambitious piece invites its viewer to step into room-sized moving panoramas, and walk through an enigmatic and disturbing ancient story that has hardly been told.

Sota, an anonymous Biblical story, recounts the tale of two sisters, Sota and Bekhorah, who live in separate villages are bound together when Sota's husband accuses her of infidelity. Against a backdrop of jealousy, betrayal, judgment, ritual humiliation, and ultimately death, Cnaani points out a deceptively simple moral parable that unfolds in countless ways.

Video projections on all four walls of the exhibition space will allow multiple narratives to develop concurrently, thus calling into question the notion of a single, coherent truth. 'The Sota Project' uses the most current new media technologies while employing storytelling techniques inspired by ancient Greco-Roman murals and Renaissance tapestries.

A specially commissioned editioned sculpture, and a fully illustrated book published by Sternthal Books accompany the exhibition. Sold separately.

Ofri Cnaani was born in Israel in 1975. She currently lives in New York and works in time-based media. Recent projects include a large-scale commission to create 10 site-specific video installations relating to the architecture of 10 museums of contemporary art in Italy. Solo exhibitions / performances include: PS1/MoMA, NYC; Twister, Network of Lombardy Contemporary Art Museums, Italy; Andrea Meislin Gallery, NYC; Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv; Pack Gallery, Milan; Haifa Museum of Art, Israel; Herzlyia Museum of Art, Israel. Group exhibitions include: Moscow Biennial; The Kitchen, NYC; Bronx Museum of the Arts, NYC; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Arnolfini Foundation Museum, Bristol, UK; Tel Aviv Museum; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Prague Triennale.

Kunsthalle Galapagos, which opened in September 2010, offers artists a unique opportunity to produce high-caliber, large-scale installation work free from commercial concerns. Based in spirit on the carefully curated and academically rigorous Kunsthalle model found in Europe, Kunsthalle Galapagos works in partnership and collaboration with artists, their galleries, foundations, and other institutional partners in an effort to promote the careers of especially promising talents.

The Sota Project had been generously supported by numerous sponsors, including a grant from The Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, (a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub Records, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and made possible with major funding from UJA-Federation of New York.); Artis; The Rabinovich Foundation; The Consulate General of Israel in NY; The Philip and Muriel  Berman Foundation; Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Andrea Meislin Gallery, Braverman Gallery, Rothschild 69; and Mana Contemporary.

read more and watch video: ofricnaani.com/recent-news/sota/