At Art Cologne 2009, Rosenfeld Gallery from Tel Aviv, Israel, presented an installation by Ben Hagari. The work, titled Weather House, was shown within the New Positions Program of Art Cologne.
In this video, Ben Hagari talks about the Weather House, his residency in Germany and his work in general.
The Weather House is a mixed media installation including video and sound. It refers to objects in the shape of a small Bavarian house with a temperature thermometer in the center that are ususally hung outside and used to indicate the temperature.
“Ben Hagari has recreated it in an almost in life size scale, changing and adding new elements and allowing the viewer to see it from the back as well; the temperature is a video projection indicating a changing temperature of a human body, moving from 36 degrees to 40 degrees.”¨The original weather house object has a relation between the figures and the function. A woman and a man appear, each standing on a door step, their bodies are connected with a mechanism to the thermometer, the temperature controls their position according to the warm or cold degrees. when it is warm the woman comes out, and when it is cold they switch positions and the man comes out, with short trousers, they reflect the temperature and are sentenced to waste time in this everlasting process.
The work has been made on occasion of residency in Atelierhaus Walzwerkstr, Dusseldorf – granted by Cary & Dan Bronner Foundation, Arts Foundation of North Rhine – Wesphalia, and Goethe Institute Tel Aviv.” (Excerpt from the press release).
Ben Hagari was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1981. He lives and works in Tel Aviv. He studied at the School of Art Hamidrasha, Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba, Israel. In 2004 he received the Study Fellowship Grant from the Ministry of Education, and in 2008 the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award and the Rafi Lavie Prize for Best Achievements.
Ben Hagari: Weather House. Rosenfeld Gallery, New Positions. Art Cologne 2009, April 26, 2009.
> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.