This workshop is a collaborative venture, in which students will research early Israeli film and video art from the 1970s, map this field for the first time, and produce an archival website dedicated to these pioneering works. We will thereby take advantage of contemporary technological platforms to preserve and make accessible this somewhat forgotten artistic enterprise.

Video-art works started appearing in Israel in the early 1970s, concurrently with their first emergence in Europe and the United States. At first the artists filmed their artistic actions and performances, but gradually the art form matured into a distinct medium with rich affinities with contemporary conceptual and performance art. Even if these early days of Israeli video are now largely forgotten, the works of the time are vibrant, experimental, path-breaking, and are of interest both intrinsically and historically.  Most young artists of the day – including Rafi Lavi, Joshua Neustain, Yair Garbuz, Michal Neeman and other – experimented with film and video art; and for some, like Buki Schwartz and Jacque Katmor, video-art became a central part of their practice. Most of these works are now in danger of physical annihilation. The course will guide and assist students to use available contemporary technology to preserve these works and to conduct an independent in-depth research of the works of the period.