share

Michal Helfman works with sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, dance and filmmaking. At the 32^nd Bienal, the artist presents the video installation Running Out of History (2015-2016), a fiction film which script is based on real interviews made by the artist with Israeli activist Gal Lusky, founder of an NGO that works in places where local political regimes raise difficulties to the access of international humanitarian aid. The film brings a narrative about justice, historical construction, art, politics, and activist practices. These discussions revolve around smuggling issues and the similarities and differences between activists and artists, as figures that can inspire and influence reality. The talks are moderated by a pair of 3D-printed dice, each side containing a word from the sentence ‘We will not forgive, we will not forget’ – coined in Israel in relation to the Holocaust but also used to justify the acts of violence perpetraded by State authorities. On the same 3D printer where the dices are printed, a dancer moves according to the directions of the machine. The movie is part of an installation that includes barriers and devices, such as transportation boxes and sculptures. Inside, there is a flat curved metal sculpture with the image of a scale, suggesting a representation of weighing and weights in face of the historical and political condition dealt with by Helfman.