Dan Allon
Contemporary Art
Parents Night / performance by Dan Allon, 2026, Ta Tarbut de Vinchi, Tel Aviv.
Dan Allon sits alone on stage, playing a recorded phone conversation from earlier that day with his parents, who are not physically present because his mother didn’t feel well. Surprisingly aware of his career, they humorously critique his work while discussing health, family, and life. Allon projects digital portraits of them sleeping, enhancing intimacy and warmth. The performance blends humor, affection, and self-reflection, turning private family moments into a shared, compelling experience that highlights the loving, absurd, and intricate bonds between artists and their families.
Curator: Jonathan Ron
Photo: Rephael Shachari
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What is Performance, performance by Dan Allon, Liebling House, 2025
In this work, Allon blends staged action with real-life situations. While other participants presented their work on stage, he planted actor Barak Sharon Bibas in the audience. During the opening—where bringing snacks is customary—Sharon Bibas devoured the entire table, provoking shocked reactions and raised eyebrows from unsuspecting guests, turning the social ritual into an absurd, humorous performance that questioned audience expectations, etiquette, and the boundary between art and everyday behavior.
Curators: Tal Alperstein and Maayan Mozes
Transient Memories, performance event by Felix Meyer-Christian and Dan Allon, Circle 1 Gallery, Berlin, Germany & Alfred Institute of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel (2017)
This collaborative performance explores memory, violence, and the personal and cultural effects of power. Meyer-Christian presents meditative, self-reflective works, offering guided tours through his own stories and the aesthetics of memory. Allon’s contribution, The Bar Mitzva, recreates the experience of a Moroccan-style Bar Mitzva at age 13, combining humor, embarrassment, and ritual.
The Berlin performance featured video screenings, Moroccan party music, and interactive gestures with “Hena” paste, culminating in a sudden, theatrical ejection of guests. In Tel Aviv, Allon adapted the work to include his parents and aunt, distributing homemade sweets and Mahia while engaging visitors physically, blending family, tradition, and performative chaos.
The evening juxtaposes contemplative reflection with confrontational spectacle, probing memory, trauma, and cultural identity through immersive and participatory art.
Curator: Revital Michali
Special Thanks: Talya Raz, Avital Globerman, Revital Michali
Photos: Adi Levy, Dafna Gazit
I Will Never Say, part of I am NOT Tino Sehgal, Nahmad Projects, London, UK (2016)
In this 6-hour performance, Allon sits in the gallery on a sofa, wearing studio clothes, glasses, and worn sneakers, watching a paused BBC documentary on the financial value of painting. He invites a visitor to sit and recounts bidding 80,000 on a late signed painting bought for someone else: “I will never say whom I bought it for.” Tapping his feet, lost in thought, he returns to the paused screen, blending presence, narrative, and secrecy into a tense, intimate meditation on art, value, and desire.
Curator: Francesco Bonami
AN ITEM ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: CLICK HERE.
EXHIBITION ON INSTAGRAM: CLICK HERE.
Thanks to: Joseph Nahmad, Tommaso Calabro, Charlotte Call, Julia Lucerno, Julia Strebelow
Photos: Dan Allon, I Will Never Say, 2016. Courtesy of Nahmad Projects and the artist. Photo: Benedict Johnson.
WrestleMENia, performance for Judgment Territories, Tmuna Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel (2015)
This work by Dan Allon combines childhood memories of wrestling with Israel’s macho culture. Actors Shahar Farhi and Daniel Azulay staged a bar brawl that transforms into a wrestling match, blurring reality and performance, questioning moral responsibility. The audience was unaware that the seemingly authentic brawl was about to happen, and had to make a choice either to watch or call for help.
Music: Shani Broner
NEWS FLASH, installation for Bad Seeds of Summer, Hayarkon 19 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel (2014)
Dan Allon transformed a gallery living room into a wartime installation where he invited the spectators watch him sleep. A looping TV broadcast displayed his daily drawings created during the Gaza war, reflecting the tension, fatigue, and absurdity of watching news in times of conflict.
Curator: Dor Zlekha Levi
Photo: Hila Ido
Progressive, performance at the group exhibition Gaming, 09 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel (2014)
In this work, Dan Allon reinterprets Tino Sehgal’s 2010 piece Progress. An actress, Naama Rodriguez, blends into the gallery opening, posing as a former art student from Netanya. She confesses her struggles with alcoholism and ambition, engaging spectators in a conversation about achieving recognition as an artist.
Curator: Maya Kashevitz
Moroccan Soccer, 2016 - Originally shown at Allon's solo exhibition "Fell At Home But Don't Forget It's My Home", Curated by Sharon Toval (photo by: Goni Riskin)
Exhaustion, video and sound work for the group exhibition Sinkholes, Arad Contemporary Art Center, Arad, 2017
The image in the video is for illustration only.
In this work, an actress lies on the floor, visible only from the balcony above, motionless except for her right pointing finger. From the balcony, spectators hear a voice in a Stephen Hawking-like tone, narrating her thoughts. The text blends Hawking’s conception of black holes with his ex-wife’s reflections on their marriage. The resulting performance creates a tension between physical stillness and mental activity, offering a darkly humorous, poignant meditation on isolation, observation, and human relationships.
Curator: Hadas Kedar
Actress: Limor Grobarmen
Sound Work Text (including original mistakes):
The black hole information paradox is an enigma that has eluded physicists for centuries now. It has been the trigger for endless debates on what actually happens once you enter a black hole. In order to understand the paradox, we are going to leave the family behind. I decided to back out at the last second and currently watching you from afar, as you enter a black hole alone. Your Family always look at you behind the shoulder, checking how much of a failure you are. In life, in your career, in your love life. As you proceed closer, I see you slowly stretched until you eventually evaporate into a crisp. I now think you are dead and glad that I did not listen to you.
I rather felt that he was my husband and the father of my children; one does not say to one’s husband. Oh, you are so clever! I must worship the ground under your feet, or in this case, wheels. I found this kind of sycophantic attitude – the attitude adopted by so many people around him, exceptionally frustrating and, of course, it grew a lot worse when we finally had to separate. However, wait. That is not how the story ends. You are actually still alive and well, and you are venturing endlessly through the black hole. What actually happens to you next does not concern us at this point. What is intriguing, though, is the fact that you are still alive, even though I just saw you die.