Chelouche Gallery at ArcoMadrid 2010
presenting DELEITOSA
a Solo Project by the photographer
Miki Kratsman
Curated by Sergio Edelsztein
Hall 10, SP07
Professionals: 17-18.02.10, 12:00-20:00
General Public: 19-22.02.10, 12:00-20:00
Miki Kratsman, Deleitosa, 2007, Digital print, 50×60 cm
In 1950 the American photographer W. Eugene Smith published a visual reportage in the famous Life magazine. The series, which in time was titled “A Spanish Village”, was shot in the Extremaduran village of Deleitosa. This work defined the “photo essay” genre and even more recorded an indelible image of life in Franco’s backward, rural Spain. In 2007, the Israeli photo essayist Miki Kratsman travelled to Deleitosa in search of W. Eugene Smith. What he found there was rather disturbing: a modern town with asphalt streets but without the inhabitants that had given life to Smith’s images.
Miki Kratsman, Israel’s highly distinguished photographer, has, for over 22 years, been infinitely committed to seriously documenting the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From Kratsman’s point of view, an accumulated documentation of the daily routine is more important, significant and even disquieting than any specific documentation of a potentially spectacular or extreme event. Kratsman was born in 1959, Argentina and immigrated to Israel in 1971. His photographs appear regularly in “Ha’aretz” newspaper in the column “The Twilight Zone” on which he is signed together with the journalist Gideon Levi. Since 2006 he presides as head of the photography department of Bezalel academy of arts, Jerusalem.
Selected exhibitions: Venice biennale, 2003; the New Hebrews exhibition at Martin Grupios Bau, Berlin, 2005; the 2006 Sao Paulo Biennale and MARCO, Vigo, Spain, 2006; the Jewish Museum New York and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Santiago, Chile, 2007; Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Katzen Arts Center, American University Museum, Washington DC, the Jewish Museum Amsterdam, The Jewish Museum, Frankfurt and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, 2008; Felix-Nussbaum-Haus, Germany, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Kultur Bahnhof Eller, Dusseldorf and Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, 2009; “Power Alone” at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2010.
