Adam Kaplan / Zurich Art Weekend
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Adam Kaplan at S3, Sommer Contemporary Art, Zurich

Zurich Art Weekend

S3, Sommer Contemporary Art’s exhibition space in Zurich, is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Berlin-based Israeli artist Adam Kaplan. Kaplan will present a site-specific installation, created especially for his solo exhibition at our Zurich space, as well as two video works that attain an even stronger poignancy due to the current state of affairs.

An opening reception and walkthrough will take place on Friday, June 12th between 16:00-20:00 at Theaterstrasse 18, 8001 Zurich. The exhibition will take place as part of the Zurich Art Weekend.

The show offers a take on the nostalgic memory of everyday life, in contrast to the current limited situation that veers between the overbearing domestic confinement to the distressing and limited availability of the public sphere. It is a kind of hallucination that is born out of a forced sojourn in a closed yet intimate space. The apartment, which usually evolves from a still container to an extension of its inhibitor, develops into a character of its own, becoming an equal kind of partner, roommate, or family member. In the main room, the big circular windows will be converted into huge, lazy, anime-style eyes, looking inside and outside simultaneously. The exhibition includes two video works and an installation by Kaplan, assembled together to reassess the present time.

Buildups (2015), is a video based on footage released by the Dubai police in January 2010. It profiles a group of individuals, all allegedly Israeli secret Mossad agents on their mission – the unseen assassination of a senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. This anti-climaxed documentation was transformed into a first-person three-dimensional map, resembling both architectural models and outdated computer games. It is juxtaposed with a music compilation of buildups segments from millennial trance tracks – a futile seamless loop of ever-accelerating beat-less crescendos. It is an intense forensic fiction, importing the generic fantasy-spaces of global capital back into the world of CGI (computer-generated imagery) through which it was first conceived.

In Conversations with the Mother (2010), an intimate interview takes place in the mid-nineties, depicting a mother telling about her gifted artist son. As details are slowly revealed, the ideal character of the son is overshadowed by a mysterious dark turn. Influenced by David Lynch’s cinematic style, as well as the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, it is an amalgam of cliches, dark fantasies, and mourning rituals.

Adam Kaplan (b. 1987, Jerusalem) lives and works in Berlin. Focusing on nostalgia, club culture and the military-entertainment complex, his works deal with the way culture defines our memory of contemporary moments. He has presented his work at various exhibitions and festivals, including Berlinale Forum Expanded, ICA London, CCA Tel Aviv, Salt Galata (Istanbul), HKW (Berlin), and CPH:DOX (Copenhagen). Kaplan obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art at The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and was a guest student in Hito Steyerl’s class at UDK, Berlin.