Elyasaf Kowner

Infobox Artist
name = Elyasaf Kowner


imagesize = 190px
caption = Elyasaf Kowner in 2008
birthdate = birth date|1970|7|13
location = Haifa, Israel
nationality = Israel
field = Film, Video art, photography

Elyasaf Kowner (אליסף קובנר) (born 1970) is a multidisciplinary artist who explores issues of abuse, loss, control and love for people. [http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/45819] [http://videochannel.newmediafest.org/blog/?p=94] He has made over 30 poetic short films that were screened in festivals and museums internationally. Kowner was described as a "multidisciplinary who can convert anything to art, design, documentary or other creative gold." [ http://www.shual.com/shualinks/sl_24/e_index.php ]

Biography

Elyasaf Kowner was born in Haifa, Israel. He is the third child of Carmela and Leon Kowner, a Holocaust survivor who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. He attended the Maale Hacarmel primary school, and spent 3rd grade in Oxford, England.

Kowner first received media attention while spending two years in New York (1993-1995), where he sprayed a series of graffiti works. [‘One Foot on the Sidewalk, Another in the Brain‘, David Lindsay, New York Press, 1994 ] ['Stencil Graffiti' by Tristan Manco, Thames & Hudson, 2002] Among them were the acclaimed graffiti ads of sprayed high heel shoes, ['Night Art', Danny Ben-Israel, Yediot Newspaper, 1994] to which he added sentences such as 'Desire Has No Limits' and 'Pure Timeless Seduction', pretending he was a fashion designer who came from Paris by signing his graffiti works 'Elyasaf Kowner, Paris'. [‘On Fashion’, The Village Voice, New York, September 6th, 1994]

In the end of 1995 he spent a few months in Japan interacting with street passers using pantomime, and later continued to study in Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. It was during a photography course in 1997, while in a student exchange program at the Royal Academy of Art (Kabk), [The Netherlands, that he made the book Moments in Growth. The book contains one hundred double spreads that juxtapose black and white photos with text. Kowner later claimed "it has been a result of a mystical connection" ['The Trees Whisperer', Galia Yahav, Timeout Tel Aviv Magazine, Edition #168, 2006] and described a journey that lasted one day. [ http://videochannel.newmediafest.org/blog/?p=94 ] In 1999, his installation titled After my Death (1999) explored an imaginary death and contained video monologues of friends exploring memories related to life loving situations. The project won the Sandberg award.

From the year 2000 to 2003 Kowner wandered around the streets of Tel Aviv, talking to strangers and shooting videos. ['The Wandering Camera', Lior Keren, Kolbo newspaper, 2005] In 2002 he published Car Portraits, a book that followed a video documenting strangers in their passing cars. Despite the fact that inevitably, the camera creates a barrier, what happened there was a mystical, energetic connection between Kowner and the people he met as they are hidden behind the crossbars of their cars. [Shlomi Schwarzberg, Car Portraits, (2002, published by Janco Dada Museum)] )

In 2003 after winning the ‘First Portrait’ prize Kowner received a grant from the Israel National Lottery, which was followed by an exhibition in the Tel Aviv museum. There he constructed an installation containing a living room like space with a TV screening Violent Emotion.In Violent Emotion one shot we witness a mixture of passion and violence between two people, one strong and one weak in a romantic relationship. The Macho male is revealed quite gruesomely in this work. [Zhao Shulin, China and Israel Exchange of Images and Works of Screening (January 2005) http://artzhaoshulin.blog.163.com/blog/static/28443782200732111913733/] Violent Emotion was later screened during Michal Heiman's installation What are You Thinking? (2004) and deceived viewers who while being tested were sure the scene is fiction. None of the documented reactions were ever passed on to the artist as promised. ['No Traffic', Yam Hameiri, Walla Culture and Entertainment, 2006]

In 2004 Kowner participated in the World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, [ http://www.wwvf.nl/2004/0wwm7_kowner.htm World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam] releasing Aftershock, a short film documenting a scene right after a suicide bomb attack in Tel aviv that occurred in Mike's Place in April 2003. They were three men who came out without a scratch. They were still in shock during the those hours while the memories keep flashing back. [http://www.kowner.com/videos/aftershock.php]

In the subsequent years his films and videos appeared in numerous festivals such as Video Zone festival, Israel, Wro Festival, Poland, New Media Art Festival, Korea, [http://www.nmartproject.net/artists/?p=237 and in art publications such as Bizz Circuits play Intifada Offspring [‘Bizz Circuits play Intifada Offspring‘ DVD curated by Sebastian Meissner, Mille Plateaux Media, 2004] and the Italian ffwd mag ['ffwd_mag#3', DVD+Magazine, Invernomuto, Italy, 2005]

Works

Books

*Moments in Growth, (1997, published in a limited edition) is a photorgraphic book bringing the experience of a journey that lasted one day. Kowner made the book during 1997, while in a student exchange program at the Royal Academy of Art (Kabk), The Hague, The Netherlands.

*Car Portraits, (2002, published by Janco Dada Museum) is an exploration of the gaze documenting strangers passing in their passing cars. The images are from the video Car portraits, and were all taken from the same location on the promenade in Tel Aviv, portraying the variety of those passing there.

* 15 (2005, ISBN 965-70-67-60-X) is a CD catalog which followed the exhibition 15. It contains an essay by Ilana Tenenbaum and samples of the videos and still photographs that appeared in the show. The CD was released in a limited edition by Haifa museum of contemporary art.

*Facing the wishes (2007, ISBN 978965717142-4) is a book containing the portraits and wishes of the children of Brenner primary school, Tel Aviv. Elyasaf Kowner met each of the children in person, talked to them and took their photographs. A portrait of each child appears in the book in an attempt to transcend the magical moment of making a wish. [ [http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3367438,00.html Ynet פוטו פארש - תרבות ובידור ] ]

Videography

* Murder Here by Artist, 6:30 min (2008)
* 6:40 (Pecha Kucha), 6:40 min (2008)
* Ya Syndrome, 5:10 min (2008)
* Jodey, 1:00 min (2007)
* The Laundromat, 1:40 min (2006)
* Polania, 2:10 min (2006)
* Red Light/Red Heat, 5:30 min (2006)
* "Learning Pain from Trees", 3:00 min (2005)
* I will yet come to your threshold, 2:50 min (2005)
* In my Home, 11:30 min (2005)
* The Handed Thread, 5:00 min (2005)
* Making Poems in Writing, 4:00 min (2005)
* Houdini Triptych, 0:18 sec (loop) (2005)
* Green Grass, 3:30 min (2004)
* Dynamism of a Phone Booth, 0:40 sec (loop) (2004)
* Le Rendez-vous, 7:00 min (2004)
* Snow Way, 4:00 min (2004)
* Violent Emotion, 2:30 min (2003)
* Around the Fire, 11:00 min (2003)
* Fufyk, 4:00 min (2003)
* Triumvirate, 2:00 min (2003)
* Aftershock, 13:00 min (2003)
* The Road to Knowhere, 2:30 min (2003)
* Dual Movie (with Boaz Arad), 15:00 min (2002)
* Call Me, 03:00 min (2002)
* Sunset, 8:30 min (2002)
* Car Portraits, 05:00 min (2002)
* Perfect Form, 01:00 min (2002)
* Diamond on the Beach, 7:30 min (2001)
* Amne, 08:30 min (2001)
* Dad Explains about Weapons and Numbers, 5:00 min (2001)
* Every Time I am (reading) Somebody, 4:00 (2001)
* In the Center, 15:00 min (2001)
* The Painting, 7:00 min (2001)
* On the Shoulders, 4:00 min (2000)
* Up and Down, 4:00 min (2000)
* Sea Baby, 03:40 (2000)
* After My Death, 12:00 min (1999)
* Measuring the Distance on a First Winter's Day, 46:00 min (1997)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.kowner.com Official Site]
* [http://videochannel.newmediafest.org/blog/?p=94 Interview in Video Channel]
* [http://www.wwvf.nl/2004/0wwm7_kowner.htm World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam]
* [http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/45819 Info in Artfacts.Net ]