The performative research body Public Movement investigates and stages political action in public spaces. From 2011-2018 Dana Yahalomi (Director, Public Movement) and Alhena Katsof (Director of Strategy and Protocol, Public Movement) partially moved the group’s activity from the streets into museums. Together, they critically examined the role of the museum within civic life with an emphasis on civil pilgrimage, choreographic memory, behaviors of citizenship, the embodied archive, museum collections and national identity. Their investigation focused on exhibition structures as they relate to political ideology.
Image: Spring in Warsaw, 2009
Director of Strategy and Protocol, Public Movement, 2011 - 2017
In her role as a concept advisor and writer with Public Movement, Alhena collaborated in the research and development of large-scale projects. Alhena has written and/or performed numerous lectures for Public Movement at venues including: Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2015); Rongwrong, Amsterdam (2015); SPIELART, Munich (2015); SITAC XI, Mexico City (2013); steirischer herbst, Graz (2012), IASPIS, Stockholm (2012), and Baltic Circle, Helsinki (2012).
Image: Cross Section, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev © 2014. Photograph by Sergey Illin and Alexander Pilyugin
National Collection was a museum exhibition realized in its entirety as a durational performance. The exhibition was held over six weeks in various spaces of the museum, and was performed by eleven members of Public Movement.
In her role as Director of Strategy and Protocol, Alhena co-conceptualized the exhibition and wrote the performative script with Public Movement Director, Dana Yahalomi.
Image: National Collection, Tel Aviv, 2015. Photo by Oz Moalem.
Debriefing Session II is a 20-minute account of Public Movement's research about modern art made in Palestine before 1948 and the ways in which that research activates current politics. The private, one-on-one session draws out the performative relationship between nation-states and their cultural institutions. In her role as Director of Strategy and Protocol, Katsof created and wrote Debriefing Session II with Dana Yahalomi, Director of Public Movement.
Debriefing Sessions II has been activated at the following sites:
November 10 - December 15 2018 at Vistamarestudio in Milan.
June 18 - October 1 2016 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, as part of the exhibition But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa curated by Sara Raza. Research and training by Hagar Ophir. Activated in New York by Amir Farjoun and Ruth Patir.
October 2015 at Villa Stuck Museum in Munich as part of the as part of Spielart Festival, curated by Tilmann Broszat. Activated in Munich by: Hagar Ophir
October - December 2015 at Artport and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, as part of Public Movement's durational exhibition, National Collection. Activated in Tel Aviv by: Hagar Ophir and Nir Shaulof
For more information please see www.publicmovementrecord.org
Image: Public Movement, Debriefing Session II, 2016. Photo by Kristopher McKay © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All Rights Reserved.
Debriefing Session I is about the American-Israeli lobby, civil pilgrimage, the right of return, nation branding, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, and the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
During the private, one-on-one sessions, a Public Movement Agent reveals key conflicts from, SALONS: Birthright Palestine?, which was presented as part of the New Museum Triennial: The Ungovernables (2012).
Debriefing Session I has been activated:
WheredoIendandyoubegin, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, curated by Nav Haq, September - November 2016.
False Flags, Pelican Bomb, New Orleans, curated by Noah Simblist, April 2016.
A-Genre Festival, Tmuna Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel, curated by Yair Vardi, March 2014.
Radical Conservatism, Castlefield Gallery, Great Britain, curated by Pil and Galia Kollectiv, February 2014.
Location: American Colony Hotel Under the Mountain Festival, Jerusalem, Curated by Omer Krieger, July 2013.
Location: Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles, organized by Artis, March 2013.
Baltic Circle Festival, Helsinki, curated by Satu Herrala, Eva Neklyaeva, November 2012.
The Ungovernables: New Museum Triennial, New York, NY, curated by Eungie Joo, April, 2012. Co-commissioned by Artis, New Museum With the support of: Ostrovsky Family Fund, The Israeli Lottery
Image: Debriefing Session I, Jerusalem, 2013. Photo by:
Art Monthly, Public Movement, Bob Dickinson, April 2014
Hyperallergic, 10 Best Art Shows in 2013, Hrag Vartanian, 01/04/14
Flash Art, Under the Mountain, Nicola Trezzi, October 2013
Dazed Digital, A Hard Encounter, Suzanne Davies-Crook, September 2013
Image: Debriefing Session I, Los Angeles, 2012. Photo by: Carmen Uriarte / Phoenix Raising Art © Public Movement.