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| Guy Ben-Ner | |
Rumänska kulturinstitutet 25 okt–9 jan |
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 Guy Ben-Ner: Stealing Beauty, 2007 Like a hacker cracking a website, Guy Ben Ner uses Ikea showrooms as ready-made stages for his loosely scripted sitcom about the basic values of capitalism and the origins of private property. The scenes are filmed without permission at Ikea stores in New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv, and the characters are played by the artist, his wife and his two children. Each scene continues until the actors are chased out. With a large dose of humour, ”Stealing Beauty” discusses and critiques the ideological consequences of global economics. The dialogue is parodic, the props have price tags and are constantly changed from scene to scene, and customers stroll in and out of the frame. The shots are well planned but simple, chance dictates the results and identity politics are ever present. Throughout the film, visual glitches multiply. Ben-Ner interrupts scenes to give stage directions, strangers walk through the set sometimes looking into the camera. The tags on the furniture switch languages, and announcements in German, Hebrew, and English intrude on the plot. The narrative flows uninterrupted from room to room, continuity be damned. In one scene, Ben-Ner lies in five different beds. Ben Ner was inspired to make the piece when reading Ikea’s slogans, such as ”Feel at home” and “Feel free to take advantage of us.” Ideas of home and family are two important concepts in the work. As in earlier pieces the family as institution is reflected upon as a power structure and for it’s functions as political and societal tool. In what on the surface resembles a soap opera, the nuclear family is looked upon as a base for private ownership and engine for the capitalist system. As ordinary as the surroundings are, the Ben-Ners are not your typical TV family. Acting on primal needs and displaying territorial aggression, they claim these Ikeas as a kind of Promised Land. Thanks to Kalmar Konstmuseum. |
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