Guy Ben Ner makes a lot out of very little, radically integrating both himself and his private surroundings into his work. His family’s apartment in Tel Aviv serves as a film location for the video artist, as do the aisles of a furniture store. In these often grotesque settings, the influence of economics and politics on the most intimate human relationships becomes apparent.
In conversation with his close friend and fellow artist Christian Jankowski, Ben Ner provides insight into the process of creating his works. For what seems improvised is based on months of research and draws on an extensive knowledge of film history, and it is this discrepancy between improvised situations and the rigor of his artistic concepts that characterizes his work. Using terms such as “aesthetics,” “fantasy,” “family,” or “citation,” curator Fanni Fetzer develops an alphabet of resistance in Ben Ner’s oeuvre. Consequently, this publication aims to convey the artist’s clear political stance and his strategy of playful resistance.

Video artist GUY BEN NER (*1969, Ramat Gan, Israel) lives and works in Tel Aviv. In 2003, he received a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in New York City. He represented Israel in the 2005 Venice Biennale and was honored with a comprehensive retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2022.