This Concludes Our Broadcast, 4:09", slide show, 61 digital drawings and a sound work, written and drawn by Dan Allon, 2020.
Thanks to Margalit Levitan, Ayala Netzer, AP Leinonen, Dr. Guy Morag, Avner Pinchover, and Eran Inbar for the kind help!
Video and sound: AP Leinonen.
The Castle Doctrine, a group exhibition, in which "This Concludes Our Broadcast" was shown. Curator: Dr. Guy Morag. Installation view, Binyamin Gallery, 2020. Laptop, cigarettes, carpet, couch. One can watch the video with the sound work, sitting on the couch. Furniture: Margalit Levitan and Dr. Guy Morag.
Works from 2019, untitled, various sizes
Works from 2014, untitled, various sizes
In 2014, Dan Allon locked himself inside his flat for an entire month, unwilling to go outside, due to the ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians. The endless bombing forced him to stay put and not work in his studio. Sitting at home and reacting to the news broadcast, Allon returned to a childhood computed drawing tool, Microsoft Paint, and started drawing intensively, making the computer his temporary studio. Since then he exhibited different images in various projects at art fairs, projections, print events, and exhibitions.
Works from 2015-2016, untitled, various sizes
Works from 2018, untitled, various sizes
Commissioned Projects - Exhibitions and Festivals
Quel bordel! / A satellite exhibition for Fumetto festival, at St. Magdalena, a 400 year-old bar in Luzern, Switzerland
Curator Jana Jakoubek:
"Dan Allon’s work is always ironic, funny, a little sad and based on his life, while speaking of bigger issues such as power struggles, biography and humor. In 2014, Allon started drawing digitally with the “Microsoft Paint” software, because he wouldn't leave his home due to the war between Israel and Gaza. Since then he is drawing nonstop, pretending to be a journalist. In 2015, while attending a performance residency in Germany, he started to reflect on his points of view as a foreigner - the tourist, the potential immigrant and the Jew, who is looking for traces of his grandfather’s family in Leipzig.The series of drawings “Quel bordel!“ shows his experiences in Luzern in 2015, where he spent several months with his girlfriend, who lived there. Through his frequent visits to the country, he experienced the city and the people beyond what the ordinary tourist gets to see. The drawings show from local food, nature and culture to intimate moments with family and friends, whatever caught his attention. The title, “Quel bordel!“, is a quote from Lucienne, a neighbor and friend, that became a frequent saying during this time of cultural and private confusion.your own text and edit me. It's easy. Through his frequent visits to the country, he experienced the city and the people beyond what the ordinary tourist gets to see. The drawings show from local food, nature and culture to intimate moments with family and friends, whatever caught his attention. The title, “Quel bordel!“, is a quote from Lucienne, a neighbor and friend, that became a frequent saying during this time of cultural and private confusion."
Those @@%%$ Foreigners / performance and an installation of questionnaires and drawings / Stereotypes of Poland - group exhibition / Brain Damage Gallery, Lublin, Poland / curator: Anna Bakiera
Curator Anna Bakeira:
"In today’s atmosphere in Europe, when millions of immigrants are crossing the borders, it seems more urgent to address the subject of stereotypes than ever. In his new installation, Dan Allon acts both as a brain behind the crime and as the one who is trying to solve it. Allon uses manipulatively his Polish / German / Jewish roots as an excuse to awaken old demons. With the information gathered, he created caricaturistic portraits, a tool that was used against the Jews only 70 years ago. By showing anonymous questionnaires that portray the “physique of an average Polish person” according to young Germans, the work might appear to have a scientific standpoint. However, a second glance would show something else. They are hung next to portraits of “Polish people”, which he drew according to the same information shown in the questionnaires. It gives the installation a political scent and raises questions on contemporary xenophobia, racism and the History between the three people – Jewish, Polish and German and role of humor in it."
Imbroglio, digital drawings, 2015 | enCOUNTERs | Group exhibition, CCA, Tel Aviv & Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt a.M.
Curator Matthias Naumann:
"In this project, Allon addresses his German Israeli identity by mixing some current life events: Travelling to Germany and Switzerland for business & pleasure, his relationship with his German girlfriend and her family and his personal aspirations to find a home in Germany based on his grandfather's origins from Leipzig. The spectator is invited to see an installation of an artist book, designed as a personal diary made out of drawings of the themes mentioned above, and a series of ready made letters that are hanged on a green wall. Allon would provide a sneak pick to his most intimate moments of his current life, allowing the spectator feel a part of it, by blurring the boundaries between private and collective experiences."
About the overall project: In-between the established formulas of mutual considerations and stereotypes of the official German-Israeli relations, the artistic project en/COUNTERs is looking for moments of blueness, roughness and provocation with the aim to create an open artistic dialogue beyond the diplomatic "Comfort Zone". After common residences in Tel Aviv, Frankfurt and Berlin - the project will present seven interdisciplinary projects by ten artists from the fields of sound art, performance, new-media and drawing.
WEBSITE: http://performing-encounters.org
Concept: Juliane Kremberg, Matthias Naumann, Noa Elran, Amir Farjoun
Realization & Dramaturgy: Noa Elran, Matthias Naumann
Production: Jörg Thums (DE) / Maayan Fuss (IL)
Thanks: Sari Golan, Marcel Klein and Netta Levavi of Binyamini ceramics center, Oren Fischer, Julia Strebelow, Avisar Goldman.
Photo of the book by: Adi Levy
5 STAR SOUVENIRS | live art commissioned for Tel Aviv Illustration Week | September 2015 | Curator: Sharon Toval
Curator Sharon Toval:
"Postcards depicting landscapes, colorful bottles holding dessert sand or holy water, and other judaica are all well known to Israelis and tourists to the holy land as items sold at souvenir shops. Those shops are a must for tourists when visiting the country and like this they became a big part of their Israeli experience. Those cheap, kitsch commodities were turned into symbolic objects to represent “what Israel is all about”, but in reality they are empty symbols that are not living up to the complexities of the Israeli society. In this one-week performance, commissioned by the 2nd Tel Aviv Illustration Week (initiated by Yuval Saar), Allon opened his personal souvenir shop at the Royal Beach 5 Star Hotel at Tel Aviv beach. The name of the project, 5 Star Souvenirs, had a spelling mistake in Hebrew to hint on Allon’s cynical approach. Every day for a week, Allon drew and printed “souvenirs” from the real Israel on the spot, e.g. drawings of the conflicts in Jerusalem, of corrupted politicians, of the humid and hot weather or of other incidents of rootless violence. In this work, Allon was working in the tension between enjoying the luxury of a five star hotel and getting visits from his art world friends, and provoking the hotel staff and guests with explosive material, which was presented like a commodity for sale."
City Mouse article about the project (HEBREW): Here
Short Text at Roni Sheffi's blog MAVEZE (HEBREW): Here
Short Text at MAKO (HEBREW): Here
Text: Julia Strebelow
Photos: Guy Yechiely
Tech: Shimon Allon
PAINT / A two-person performance at Hanina Gallery of Art, Tel Aviv / 2016
Dan Allon & Ayala Netzer
Photos: Tziky Eisenberg
Sound: Shani Broner
curator Tziky Eisenberg:
"Allon & Netzer drew separately hundreds of drawings using Microsoft Paint software. The images were highly personal and very politic. At the performance night, both artists set and "VJ"ed with the drawings, screening them on the wall. While Netzer's drawings were revealing and intimate, Allon's were dealing with daily political life in Israel. By randomly putting them together they create a living and breathing testimony of the daily life. They were accompanied by a 1 hour long sound collage, a mixture of Yogi music, news flash theme music and canonic Israeli songs."