Video

Nightshift, Local Activity, 18 Short Ceremonies

Lezli Rubin-Kunda

2002, 20:06 minutes

TAPECODE 115.00

1. Nightshift, 2002
Kibbutz Nachshon, Israel; Length: 8:25 minutes; Performance: May 2001

An empty apartment at the end of a row of workers’ accommodations in a wooded area was the site of an all-night performance. The artist collected natural materials from the vicinity of the site typical of the kibbutz landscape, and carried out a series of improvised actions, arising from the interaction of materials, body and the kibbutz context. Labeled Polaroid photos, taken through the performance, were left at the site of each action, along with the remnants of the materials used, as a record of the night’s events. In the video, each of the filmed actions selected is accompanied by its corresponding Polaroid shot.
The work was presented as part of
Blurrr: The 3rd Biennial of Performance Art
It was first screened at 7a11d 3th International Festival of Performance Art, in its D2D program. (Direct to Documentation)

2.
Local Activity 2001

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Length: 5.05 minutes; Performance: September 2000
The work took place in
Gallery One One One, School of Art, University of Manitoba, Canada.
The artist came to Winnipeg, the city where her grandparents arrived from the ‘old country’, visited the family’s old neighborhood, wandered around the campus and the outlying fields of the city, collecting materials. She then spent several days in the gallery space, creating and dismantling temporary configurations, and carrying out rituals wit h the materials, relating to her grandmothers' domestic labors in her new home,
Throughout the week, the performance could be seen unfolding through the large gallery windows; polaroids of the activities were laid out as they were taken. An installation of the remnants of the materials and actions, the photos, video documentation and notebooks remained on view for the remaining exhibition period.

3.
18 Short Ceremonies for a Building of Emptied Rooms 2000
Military Grounds, Potsdam, Germany; Length: 6:36 minutes; Performance: September 2000
The site, the Gross Glienicke Military Grounds, on the outskirts of West Berlin, was an army base which served different regimes since the 1920’s when it was built. The artist chose to explore alarge abandoned arms building, in the process of being dismantled. Over the course of a week, she performed a series of private rituals in the different rooms.
"I am confronted by a maze of corridors and rooms, by an eerie silence, and an odor of decay; an oppressive sense of the harsh regimes once served hangs in the air. It is like a descent into hell, yet also holds the beauty of an empty cathedral. I perform actions that try to delicately balance between the private and the collective, between memory and celebration, mourning the events of the past, and affirming the present moment."
The work was part of an Israeli-German artists’ project and symposium,
Memory and Vision. For the exhibition, a map of the rooms of the inaccessible building, as well as photos of the traces in each room were shown along with the video documentation.

Rental and Sales

Single Screening Rental

$190.00

Educational Purchase DVD (Bluray +$15)

$260.00

5 Year Educational Streaming License, Digital File with DVD Circulation Copy

$550.00

Gallery Exhibition and Installation, complete Media Request form for quote

Institutional Archival Acquisition, complete Media Request form for quote

Curators and programmers, please contact distribution@vtape.org to receive a login and password to preview Vtape titles online.

Screening and exhibition rentals and archival acquisitions include public performance rights; educational purchases or licenses include rights for classroom screenings and library circulation. When placing an order the customer agrees to our general online terms and conditions. Payment (or a purchase order number) and a signed licensing agreement must be received before media can be shipped to the client.