Journal
Michael Rakowitz: the Sumerians, the Beatles, and Israel

As
an engagé
artist, the American deals with the dramatic, somewhere between
geopolitics and pop culture.
Right
to the Point
#3/Artist’s Soapbox Series: A Meeting with Michael Rakowitz
Facsimiles
of old books which did not survive the allied bombing in Germany,
carved by Afghan sculptors in slivers of stone from the Bamiyan
Buddhas, after their destruction in 2001 by the Taliban, and
presented in display cases. Resolutely involved with the political,
the social, and the destruction and survival of cultures, the
American Michael Rakowitz, like this installation shown at the last
Kassel Documenta, was the third guest of the Right to the Point
lectures given at le Point Perché to introduce the sources of his
works—installations, sculptures, performances and drawings--,
influenced as much by ancient cultures as by Hollywood and the major
political goings-on of the last few decades.
The Fab Four in Jerusalem
Rakowitz, who is a staunch surfer on Ebay, a cultural archaeologist and champion of a militant art, also finds in his own DNA the fruit of his inspiration—he is an American Jew of Iraqi origin. So his project The Breakup, where he sets up a parallel between the separation of the Beatles and the Middle East conflict, juxtaposes a stone from the Wailing Wall and another coming from the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the group played on many occasions, while on a map of Jerusalem, Paul represents Israel, John Egypt, Ringo Jordan and George Iraq.
Saddam Hussein and Darth Vador
From
Leonard
Cohen playing for Israeli troops at the height of the Yom Kippur war
to the female translator of a Ukrainian television station who
refused, during the Orange Revolution, to officialize the election of
Viktor Janukovych, deemed fraudulent, in sign language , from Gordon
Matta-Clark to the supposed influence of Darth
Vader
on Saddan Hussein, Michael Rakowitz weaves an extremely interesting
link between geopolitics and pop culture.
Copyright :William DeShazer, Chicago Tribune
Artiste(s):
Event(s):
- - right to the point #3 / Artists’ Soapbox Series Le 07/05/2014