Two Minutes of Standstill. A Collective Performance by Yael Bartana
28 June 2014
Exactly one year after Yael Bartana’s collective performance Two Minutes of Standstill in the city of Cologne a publication takes a looks back at this project that was as ambitious as it was important: Inspired by the Israeli memorial day Yom HaShoah – the holiday to commemorate the victims and resistance fighters of the Holocaust – Bartana called for a symbolic interruption of everyday life. Two Minutes of Standstill was a political act, a social sculpture and a collective performance at the same time. A ritual as well as a public discourse.
Beginning with the preparation of the performance a whole range of encounters occurred, positive and critical positions were formulated. But the harsh reactions of parts of the media and political scene – Die Welt called it “Porn for Intellectuals” others labelled it as “Holocaust Parody” or even called the artist a “useful Jew” – was a surprise to the artist who had sought to transfer a ritual from her cultural background to the nation of perpetrators.
So what does the specific way this history is told in Germany tell us about contemporary Germany? And what nerve did Yael Bartana’s performance hit to provoke such strong reactions? The book Two Minutes of Standstill. A Collective Performance by Yael Bartana – with contributions by Yael Bartana, Christina v. Braun, Boris Buden, Galit Eilat, Florian Malzacher, Ihab Saloul and Stefanie Wenner – provides insight into the realization of the project, documents the event, and analyzes the complicated preparations as well as the often very polemic opposition against it. But it also takes a broader view and uses the artist’s work as an opportunity to reflect on the role of history, memory, and commemoration for the present. The essays focus on the gap between the official narrative of history and the hidden agenda of institutionalized tradition, while investigating the opposition between commemoration carved in stone and performatively bringing to life not only historical events but also visions of/for the future.
The book can be ordered via bookstores or directly at Sternberg Press:
www.sternberg-press.com
Two Minutes of Standstill. A Collective Performance by Yael Bartana
Edited by Florian Malzacher & Stefanie Wenner
With contributions by Yael Bartana, Christina v. Braun, Boris Buden, Galit Eilat,
Florian Malzacher, Ihab Saloul, Stefanie Wenner.
A publication of Impulse Theater Biennale 2013
Copublished by Sternberg Press & NRW KULTURsekretariat
Design by Fons Hickmann
July 2014, English
21 × 28 cm, 82 pages, 8 b/w ill., softcover
ISBN 978-3-95679-061-4
€20.00
