"Mobile Archive" in Nizhniy Novgorod

Creative Association of Curators TOK in partnership with the Israeli Center for Digital Art presents the project

MOBILE ARCHIVE traveling collection of video art from Israel

in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia September 6 - December 14, 2014

Volga region branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art Opening night: November 6th, 19.00   On the opening night there will be conducted a talk with Maria Veits, curator of Mobile Archive in Russia.

The Mobile Archive is a traveling collection of Israeli video art that belongs to the Israeli Center for Digital Art and contains more than 2500 titles. The archive includes video art, sound art, film, and documentation of performances and installations by Israeli and international artists in the field of media art. Many of the works are linked thematically through questions of identity, militarism, and nationalism, as well as other sociopolitical issues relevant to the region.

The idea of the Mobile Archive surfaced during several conversations on the idea of bringing the Israeli Center for Digital Art’s Video Archive to the Kunstverein in Hamburg. The question was how it could function out of its original context – how to make the archive dynamic and valuable to the local audiences at both ends. Starting in 2007, the Mobile Archive began its  journey and has since been represented as an independent project as well as a part of various art events at more than 20 venues including Hamburg Kunstwerein, WYSPA Institute of Art in Gdansk, Art in General in New York, Centro Da Ciltura Judaica in Sao Paulo and many others. In Russia, where the Mobile Archive arrives for the first time, it is curated by the Creative Association of Curators TOK (St Petersburg).

One of the main principles of the Mobile Archive is its accessibility and openness to the public at large: the archive is presented in a video library format, where each visitor will be able to choose freely from hundreds of existing video works, and view the selected pieces. Thus, the Mobile Archive raises the issue of the active role of the audience as well as touches upon the important question of storing and passing knowledge in the society today, including the mission of archives in these processes.

Even though Israeli artists working with video are widely known throughout the world, so far they haven’t had a massive exposure in Russia. By bringing the Mobile Archive to the three large Russian cities (St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Nizhniy Novgorod) TOK offers the Russian audience a unique opportunity to browse through one of the world’s top collections of Israeli video art and see works by such internationally acclaimed Israeli artists as Sigalit Landau, Yael Bartana, Dor Guez, Nira Pereg, Nir Evron, Avi Nmograbi, Ruti Sela, Roee Rosen, Guy Ben Ner and many others. 

In Nizhniy Novgorod  "Mobile Archive" will be presented at the Volga region branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art from November 6 to December 14. The project was already presented in St Petersburg in April and Yekaterinburg in September and will further travel to Dallas.  

Project events

The project will be accompanied by a parallel program.

• November 6 , 19.00 Public talk with Mobile Archive project curator in Russia Maria Veits (TOK) 

• November 14, 21 and 28, 19.00 Screening programs of Israeli video artists 

Project organizers: Creative Association of Curators TOK in partnership with the Israeli Center for Digital Art Project partner: Volga region branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art Mobile Archive in Nizhniy Novgorod is supported by: Embassy of Israel in Russia Artis Grant Program