The Zone
Ohad Matalon
21st January 2012 – 25th February 2012
in cooperation with Tavi Art Gallery (Tel Aviv)
curated by Sagi Refael
Podbielski Contemporary is pleased to present ‘The Zone’, the first solo exhibition in Germany of the established Israeli photographer Ohad Matalon. ‘The Zone’ exhibition presents a selection from a series of the same title, consists of a body of works done in the last decade. ‘The Zone’ tries to contemplate and reflect on the representation of the Israeli appearance as shown abroad through different media images. The language of the works varies from ironic to humorist, tempting and dramatic in order to arouse the spectators’ awareness to the cynical strategy of the exhibition, and to make them suspicious in regard of the information supplied by Matalon’s works. Matalon often intends to reveal political forces and interests by exposing the manipulation, images are creating in aim of spreading national ideas and shaping social and cultural identities. The Photographs in the exhibition deal with the stereotypical imagery of Israel, The Holy Land, by excessively using symbolic icons of Israeli culture and by using exaggeration: exaggeration of colors, exaggeration of drama, exaggeration in the use of symbols, such as a camel, a donkey, Orthodox Jews, Palestinians and Arabs, Star of David. In order to do that, Matalon went to shoot at the political, geographical and socioeconomic margins of Israel, far away from the western oriented central cities. Although Matalon focuses on the state of Israel as a study case, many other places, identities and entities can relate to the images he produces. Ohad Matalon was born in 1972 in Israel, and currently lives and works in Tel Aviv. He received an M.F.A. from the Bezalel Academy of Art in 2007, and graduted with a B.F.A. with honors from the Bezalel Academy of Art in 2001. Matalon has been granted the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture’s Prize for Young Artists (2006) and the First Portrait Grant by Mifal Hapais (2002). His work has been acquired by many public institutions such as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Haifa Museum of Art, Mishkenot Shaananim, and by private collections in Israel and abroad. The exhibition is held in collaboration with Tavi Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, and curated by Sagi Refeal. The accompanying exhibition catalogue features essays by Dr. Vered Zafran Gani and Sagi Refael.