Short Paintings, performance evening, Beit Kandinoff, Jaffa, 2017
Curator Adiya Porat:
"The evening is a puzzle of fragments, inspired by the life Dan Allon. The performances show moment, partially autobiographical, partially constructed, all with an open ending. Living pictures, emphasized moments, all portrait dilemmas and thought of a young man, yet not too young anymore. They all project sensations of violence, solitude, and cynicism, and join onto a bigger story, which remains enigmatic. The material for this evening: human body, voice, encountering and the abilty to tell a story. Allon created a joint happening, for the spectator, artist and space, in which the participants, both passive and active, are all material for his disposal.
One might say, a performance is always autobiographic. An existential perception of performance would argue that a human existence is continuous, cohesive, and individualistic, which correlates between the performer and character he / she performs. This perception, which was prominent in the 1970-80s as “solo and auto performances”, claims that is shows more about the performer than about the character. The text spoken or shown was perceived as “authentic”. But Allon shows a more deconstructive way of looking at it. His works are mockomentary. Looks real, but mostly it’s fake. Hélène Cixous, a a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician, voiced her opinion against “authentic” autobiographies, saying it does not exist (The Book of Promethea" London and New York: Routledge 1994, p 126). So does Allon.
He uses the argument of an autobiography which is more of a tale, a narrative told for a reason, and undermining the possibility of authentic story in the first place. He puts himself on stage, but reveals a different way to tell a story, and to realize his so called life trough it. By that he challenges the spectators to contemplate about the story they tell themselves regarding their autobiographies."
CREDITS:
Curator: Adiya Porat
Actors: Naama Rodriguez, Barak Sharon, Dolev Ohana, Felix Mayer-Christian, Zahava Rodrigo, Limor Grobman, Avner Pinchover
Special thanks: all Mimoona contributes, Arianna, Fornaciai, Atar Rabina, Ari-Pekka Leinone, Shimon Allon, Mariana Zanetti, Michael Abramovich
PR: Anna Bershtansky
WrestleMENia, for the group exhibition Judegment Territories at Tmuna Theater, 2015, curated by Maayan Amir
Actors: Shahar Farhi and Daniel Azulay
Music composed with kind help of Shani Broner
Curator Maayan Amir:
"The artists were asked to create a performance work to walk on the thin line between theater and real life, under the assumption that moral
standards can be better questioned through this junction. In this work, Allon tried to combine two themes: his childhood memories as a wrestling fan, and the Israeli hostile and macho environment. In order to make the crowd puzzled by the realism of the work, he exhibited it first, 10 minutes before the official opening of the exhibition. The work divides to two parts: the first is what appears to be an authentic bar brawl between to Israeli thugs for a minor reason, taken from Israeli daily events. In front of the shocked spectators and with no one aware in advance, they start beating each other and evoking the question – should I do something about it? One minute after, the fight exposes itself and becomes a recreation of a wrestling match, leaving the audience with a bitter smile."
NEWS FLASH, for Bad seeds of summer, group exhibition, Hayarkon 19 Gallery, curated by Dor Zlekha Levi (photo by: Hila Ido)
Curator Dor Zlekha Levi:
"In the context of an art event and group exhibition dealing with Israel's next war, there is nothing more typical Israeli then falling asleep infornt of the news on TV. The living room became an installation at Hayarkon 19 Gallery in Tel Aviv, and the loop on TV was made out of Allon's daily drawings, made during the war in Gaza in 2014."
"She is Progressing in life", for the group exhibition Gaming, at 09 Gallery, 2014, curator: Maya Kashevitz
Actress: Naama Rodriguez
Curator Maya Kashevitz:
"In the current performance work Allon creates a personal interpretation to Tino Seghal's work from 2010, "Progress". He was asked, along with other participants in the group exhibition, to create a new artwork standing on the shoulders of previous performance works given in a list. Allon used the structure of the original work – but change the content and manipulated it to imply local meaning. An actress blended in the opening of a solo exhibition, pretending to be a former art student who lived in Netanya. She claimed to be an alcoholic, and expressed her feeling to become an artist and exhibit in the gallery, asking the spectators what she shall do in order to achieve it."
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, for the group exhibition Sinkholes, at Arad Contemporary Art Center, Arad, 2017, curated by Hadas Kedar.
Actress: Limor Grobarmen.
The image in the video is for illustration only.
Curator Hadas Kedar:
"An actress is laying on the floor, as if she fell down, and can only be seen from the balcony above. She is laying down only moving her pointing finger of her right hand. The rest of her body seems paralyzed. On the balcony, the spectators hear a sound, in a Stephan Hawking kind of voice, describing her thoughts. The text is a mixture of Hawking's conception of black holes and his ex-wife's explanation why their marriage fell apart."
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.