ALL IN ORDER MR. GENERAL, Solo exhibition at Caos Gallery, Venice, Italy, 2016
More information and a flyer at IoDeposito website: HERE
Curator Karni Barzilai:
"The exhibition glorifies a presence , one of a fictional dictator, the artist's alter ego. Using him, Allon explores a reality of power struggles between men and imprisonment. The dictator's character embodies a mixture of memories and personalities emanating from a complicated relationship with his father, a post traumatic experience following his service in a military prison, and more. The immediate reference for the dictator’s visual appearance is taken from other ‘real life’ eccentric generals such as Idi Amin Dada and Moumer Kadaffi.
This exhibition is a natural continuation to Allon's previous work. In his installations "Letter to his father" and "The Shawish of section four" – the spectator met other sides of the dictator that both reveal and hide detail of his obscured past. In the letter Allon reveals his complicated relationship with his father, which might resemble a relation between a prisoner and a warden. In "The Shawish of section four" Allon showed the dictator as a Lima Syndrome patient – by focusing on his living environment: a military prison tent that combines both a prisoner's items and the dictator's into a mixture that disrupt any clear and distinct distinction between them, transforming both of into a prisoner and a warden, a lonely and mysterious muscular presence.
In this current exhibition Allon adds a continuous performative level. He imprisons himself in the gallery for a total of 7 days, without leaving the site at all. The dictator will be both the warden and the prisoner. He would follow a rigid schedule with repetitive chores, such a cooking, cleaning and drawing. The prisoner's only contact with the world is through letters and he is only allowed to communicate with the warden by writing. At the end of the exhibition the dictator would be let free, and the installation – that includes his functional items, uniform, painting and letter correspondence would be public for the visitors. Allon invites the spectator to enter is inner world, but is not allowed to talk to them or establish eye contact with them. He is exposed 24 hours a day to the public, by conducting a funny, intimate and embarrassing routine. Doing so, Allon makes present the unsolvable tension between the visitor and the dictator."
An article about the work in Italian: HERE
CREDITS
Iodeposito director and head curator: Chiara Isadora Artico
Curators: Alessandra Chiericato & Marco Miglioranza
Team: Giulia Di Paula & Federica Ceci
Photography: Courtacy of Iodeposito
Special Thanks: Giuseppe from Caos Gallery, Manca Bejec
During the exhibition, Anschluss (2016, 5:53 minutes), a collaborative video work by Dan Allon and Shani Broner was screened in the gallery. The video was shot during a one-month residency in the village of Nes Ammi in the north of Israel. Special thanks to: Gerit Christiani and Gil Shachar.
Anschluss was also exhibited at Anechoic - a two pesron show by Dan Allon and Ana Mrovlje, August-September 2017, at The old mayor's house, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Watch a TV report about the exhibition by PRESSING HERE
Special thanks to: Ana Mrovlje, Chiara Isadora Artico, Bojan Albahari, Mirza Tvrtković, Mateja Veble
Dan Allon performing as the dictator, ALL IN ORDER MR. GENERAL - solo exhibition at Meshuna Gallery, Tel Aviv, November 6-15, 2014.
Photo: Anton Abramov
Curator: Karni Barzilai
Additional performer: Adar Goldfarb
PR: Anna Bershtansky
Graphic design: Odin Shadmi
Special thanks: Rabinowitz Fund, Eran Inbar, Shimon Allon, Avital Globerman, Oren Fischer, Anton Abramov, Omer Faragi
Letters sent between the dictator and the warden, during one week imprisonment at Meshuna Gallery
The Shawish Of Section Four - Solo exhibition at Hayarkon 19 Gallery, Tel Aviv, September 2014.
Curator Avi Lubin:
"In Kzioth, an Israeli military correctional facility, the Shawish acts as the representative of the Palestinian prisoners population. An authoritative figure, the Shawish both communicates with prisoners, thereby enforcing rules of behavior and negotiates with wardens in their own language. While the Shawish, as most of the Palestinian prisoners are located in Kzioth for their political positions, the wardens, on the other hand, are serving in the Israeli army, positioned in Kzioth regardless of their own political affiliations. This scenery of complex positionality drives the dynamic of power relations between the prisoners and the warden, as they both develop a desire to switch their roles.
In this particular performance, the artist revives, and relives an alter ego he has invented while serving in Kzioth military correctional facility in 2002. This character, an imaginary Dictator, is pure authoritarianism. Consumed by the desire to become even more authoritative, by switching to the role of an Israeli warden, the dictator is relentlessly struggling to imprison himself. By building a metaphorical replica of a prisoner’s tent in Kzioth, consisting many objects (such as plastic plants, glasses, cigarettes, coffee, cardamom seeds, blankets and more), the artist creates a zone of indeterminacy where the Dictator is both the authoritative representative, positioned in a Sawish’s tent, but simultaneously positioned as an imaginary warden, imprisoning himself.
The Dictator has many reasons to be locked up, which go beyond the political act alone. At the start of the performance, the Dictator walks around freely, intermingling with the crowd. He is authoritative, keeping a straight face and utter silence. He shakes hand, accompanied by a drummer who plays marsh on snare drum non-stop. There is a sort of festivity to authoritarianism. At the end of the performance, the Dictator reads a letter to the crowd –now becoming his captive audience. “Letter to his Father”, read aloud by the Dictator, reveals a harsh and painful truth about the artist performing him. The Father is unaware of the existence of the letter. Once the letter has been read, the Dictator / artist is no longer strong or authoritative. He is a coward little boy damaged by the real authoritative father. It is homage to both sides of the Shawish, wherever he is positioned."
Video documentation of the performance was forbidden.
To read an interview with Avital Globerman for Erev Rav Magazine (HEBREW), please press here.
To read a theoretical text about the project, by Batia Doner (HEBREW), please press here.
CREDITS:
Curator: Avi Lubin
Photos: Goni Riskin
Special Thanks: Eran Inber, Adar Goldfarb, Maria Brock, Miri Segal, Alona Freedberg, Roee Rosen, Boaz Arad
The trip to Jisr Az Zarqa, performance in the publich sphere, June 2014
Curator: Ruti Sela
Curator Ruti Sela:
"In a trip to Jisr Az Zarqa, one of Israel's poorest inhabitats, Allon conducted a short performance work, using his alter ego, The Dictator. Accompanied by his fellow artist friends as bodyguards, he set down for a smoke and tea with the mayor, Amash Morad Fathi. They spoke about politics and and exchanged papers on required budgets to make the local council prosperous."
Installation at Herzliya artist house, Herzliya, Israel, 2014
Letter to his father, artist book & installation, spoken word performance, 2014
Curator Karni Barzilai:
Curator: Avi Lubin
"Inspired by Franz Kafka's book with the same title, Allon wrote a 24 page long secret letter to his father. The letter contains secrets, intimate details and is very direct. It is hard to know who is blaming whom, and who's responsible for which trouble in the other's lives. The text remains a secret until today.
The work has an installative outlet, and a performative outlet. The installation was commissioned for the 2014
group exhibition Confessions. It was presented on a school table, which also resembles a catholic structure of chair and table . On top them, the holy book, the entrance to Allon's most intimate thoughts, secrets, and dark places. The spectator is invited to read the book at the gallery, one person at a time, and is exposed to harsh and disturbing information that leaves him startled. The performance was Allon's reading, for approximately 25 minutes, while he was wearing the uniform of the dictator."
This work was also exhibited at The Children Are OK (a group exhibition curated by Taly Cohen Garbuz), Feel At Home But Don't Forget It's My Home (solo show curated by Sharon Toval) and Meet Your Critics (a group show curated by Lisa & Heiko at Kreuzberg Pavillion)
Photo: Yigal Pardo
An Interview about the works (Hebrew): HERE
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The lonelier you are the more collective you become , a group exhibition at The Spaceship Gallery, 2013
The starting point of this work was an interpretation to a philosophical statement by Deleuze & Guattari : the lonelier you are, the more solicited you are from society, the more you hold back and sit at home, the more collective this act becomes on the political level. Allon presented a very simple installation of three stacks of Xerox copies of three drawings, showing homoerotic scenes that seem to be related to his father. The viewers were allowed to take the copies. By giving them away he tried to create a community of secrets, a pact between me and the visitors, which are let into the most private world.
Curator: Assaf Gruber
Thanks: Eran Inbar, Shimon Allon, Roee Rosen
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Installation at Oranim Academic Gallery, Kiryan Tivon, Israel, 2017. photos by: Hadar Saifan