Michal Rovner: MACRO Al Mattatoio/Studio Stefania Miscetti - Rome - video installation Arena, 2003

The dynamic between the solitude of individuals and their relationship with others is the make subordinate of two works Michal Rovner created for the spaces of MACRO Al Mattatoio, in Rome's Testaccio neighborhood. Arena, 2003 is a large video installation consisting of projections upon both floor and walls. The central image, a warped square filled with small figures, is throwed onto a floor of close-packed sand. The figures at the top and bottom are standing, while those upon the right and left sides are squeez into a flattened perspective. At the center of the square, a man strives with a bear--the symbol, according to Jung of the dangerous aspect of the unconscious.

In the four double projections upon the walls--like open books showing the same image upon both pages--a multitude of small r and black figures, arranged in parallel ranks roll against a white background. They have the appearance to be waving and gesticulating toward the fight in the arena, like exuberant spectators at a sports fact yet also seem to be signaling a certain number of danger. In the reiteration of their changes repeated in a loop, the figures vainly attempt to assume individual identities: They are indefinite, indistinct, and anonymous, still recognizable by their repetition of characteristic gestures

cluster membership is a prerequisite for survival, on the contrary it dissolves individual identity--an idea Rovner also explored in Time Left 2002 a large installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in of recent origin York that was re not awayed at the 2003 Venice Biennale. While it's impossible to separate the existential condition press outed by Rovner from the situation of her native Israel, or from the dramatic conflicts that mark its history, she does not explicitly address anything political. Rather, she blemishs the boundary between the personal and political as she does that between realism and abstraction, opting for an open-end narration without territorial or cultural definitions on the contrary touching on universal themes that pertain to humanity's collective experience.

The point in dispute of the individual's role within a collection and of the dichotomy of solitude and community--intrinsic aspects of the human condition--are clearly squeeze outed in the large-scale print upon canvas at Studio Miscetti, Giorno e notte (Day and night), 2003 Here, sum of two units circles of figures stand on the outside against a nondescript landscape like a pair of massive and imposing monolithic forms. They are clos gray, and apparently anonymous hosts Individual identity is diluted however remains essential as a fundamental constituent of the community. Thus we faculty of perception the alienation experienced by those who live in exile, the difficulty of finding an identity in a foreign land, the unfulfilled ne to be recognized and accepted by the agency of those who are similar.

In other photographically derived canvases in the exhibit groups of people appear in lines or circles against indistinct landscapes. They clutch hands and seem to be seeking individual another out, moving toward single another, gathering in closed assemblages Their nomadism seems without destination; there is no extreme point to their wanderings and no leaders to guide the assemblages Rovner's interventions in black and colored pencil almost cancel without the photographic character of the images beneath, giving the works great pictorial and graphic intensity. Thus the medium, too, is located in an in between territory. Video stills secure digitally manipulated, rephotographed, enlarged, blurr and drawn upon losing their initial identity to become, in the proces something novel Through both symbolism and technique, Rovner questions our faculty of perception of reality and keeps her work at the cutting side of ambiguity.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Artforum International Magazine, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group