Roee Rosen
Excerpt from the documenta 14 daybook: Rosen’s practice is characterised by a desire to “[undermine] the normative implications of identities and identifications through fictionalization, irony, and revision [...] Using a vast array of fictional characters and iconographic motifs and codes, Rosen frequently refers to, and transforms, not only the canon of the historical avant-garde and transgressive traditions from the Marquis de Sade to Georges Bataille, but also popular media, political propaganda, and classic children’s fairy tales.”
The Blind Merchant (1989–91), Grimmwelt Kassel
Ink, watercolor, pastel, gesso, graphite, and collage on A4 paper (145 sheets and 151 pages of text)
Speaking with Conchita about collaborating on Don Quixote project, undertaken along similar lines > perhaps using the translator’s (of my edition) advice to “skip” certain bits as an invitation to replace those bits
Installation of original sheets, yellowed, crinkled and rough // published version is a neat and tidy edition, black and white > nice to read, though materially not as satisfying
From the publisher:
“An artist book juxtaposing text and image, history and its revision, The Blind Merchant [...] is composed of three elements: the complete text of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice; a “parasitical” text written by Roee Rosen that runs alongside the play, adopting the perspective of the principal antagonist Shylock, the Jewish moneylender; and 145 drawings that present an alternative approach to the drama’s staging and casting of characters—Shylock is depicted as the blind merchant with drawings made by the artist while blindfolded.” “The book is also telling of its time, produced at the moment when the idea of originality was up for question, the subaltern was asked to speak, and just before Silicon Valley took over our imaginations. A compelling superimposition of Shakespeare, The Blind Merchant shows that classic stories are still open for new angles of approach that reflect the times of its reading.
The Dust Channel (2016), Palais Bellevue
Digital video, color, sound (23 min. ) > trailer here, with a 90-second video in my photo library
fucking strange, but strangely captivating > the absurdity of it offset the perhaps heavy-handed linking dust removal with xenophobia linked to immigration
“an operetta with a Russian libretto set in the domestic environment of a bourgeois Israeli family, whose fear of dirt, dust, or any alien presence in their home takes the shape of a perverted devotion to home-cleaning appliances. Rosen associates dust figuratively with sand. The desert obliquely points to specific and current forms of xenophobia”
“In 1811, [the Palais Bellevue] became the seat of Jérôme Bonaparte during his short-lived reign as the King of Westphalia. During this period, the Palais first opened its doors to Kassel’s famous native son Jacob Grimm, who worked as Jérôme’s librarian in the 1810s.”