The black curtain in a window of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien invites the audience to enter the gallery in a similar way to the crossing of a threshold into a theatre. And in the case of this specific exhibition, a reference to the theatre is a suitable pairing, or perhaps a “theatre of gestures” to be more exact.
Assaf Gruber’s solo show, “That Would be Telling”, seeks to overcome the limitations of sculpture, whilst at the same time reverting back to its origins – the gesture. The starting point for this exhibition began with a 2004 series titled “Studies in Sculpture”, where works were based on film material from well-known cinema productions from the 1970s and 80s.
In Gruber’s work, he proceeds to cut and edit scenes from movies, along with the added repetition of an action being repeated over and over again, encouraging the audience to view the movie as more of a sculpture than it’s original form as a film.
Gruber uses film as a material not only as a medium, curving and manipulating it as though he were a sculptor, until they became self-contained. Transforming their virtuality into a physical structure and making objects from something which is an inherently flat surface, conducting a dialogue between the audience as well as the surrounding objects. He places them in unfamiliar situations and creates a pedestal made of the memories, where collective history and personal reminiscences collide.
Text by Weronika Trojanska
Assaf Gruber “That Would Be Telling” at Künstlerhaus Bethanien