Guy Ben-Ner is among the world’s foremost video artists. He gained international fame with a series of low-tech shorts, starring his family in absurdist settings carved out of their home and immediate environment. Moby Dick (2000), for example, features Ben-Ner and his 6-year-old daughter play-acting in their kitchen, using everyday props like sink and stove to recall Mellville’s tale. Wild Boy (2004), by contrast, stars Ben-Ner’s son in an anarchic take on Francois Truffaut’s 1970 film L’enfant sauvage, the true story of a feral boy disciplined by civilization. Most famously, perhaps, Stealing Beauty (2007) riffs on the family sitcom. The twist is that it was filmed entirely in Ikea stores, Ben-Ner’s clan taking up (illegal) residence in plain view of stunned staff and shoppers. Ben-Ner’s work has been widely shown. Israel’s representative at the 2005 Venice Biennale, he has had solo shows at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2007), Mass MOCA (2009), and the Berlinische Galerie (2012), among many others. His visit to Illinois coincides with a solo show at Chicago’s Aspect/Ratio Gallery. 

Events:

4/8/13 - 7:30 pm, Lecture, 62 Krannert Art Museum (500 East Peabody Drive, Champaign)

4/9/13 - 4:00 pm – Jewish Studies Workshop, English Building, Room 109 

4/10/13 - 7:00 pm – Artist Lecture at the Logan Center, University of Chicago (915 East 60th Street)