Lot 102: MICHAEL BLUM

MICHAEL BLUM ISRAELI B. 1966 ISTIKLAL ALLEE 2006 enameled plaques street signs, each: 23 x 70 x 1 cm / 9.06 x 27.56 x 0.39" (7)

Some recent solo exhibitions
Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou 2008, 'Ciao Ghatoul'
Mobile Art Production, Stockholm 2007, 'Cape Town - Stockholm (On Thembo Mjobo)'
Clockshop, Los Angeles 2005, 'Suburbia without borders', billboard project

Some recent group exhibitions
New Museum, New York 2009, 'Museum as Hub: Be(com)ing Dutch at a Distance'
Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam 2008, 'Questioning History'
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco 2007, 'World Factory'
De Appel, Amsterdam 2006, 'Mercury in Retrograde'

Selected publications
Beth Hatefutsoth, Never looked better: contemporary artists respond to the Leni & Herbert Sonnenfeld Photo Collection, Tel Aviv: s.n.] 2009
Michael Blum, Mein Land, Münster: Unrast Verlag 2008
Dorothée Charles (ed.), Michael Blum: monument of the birth of the 20th century, Frankfurt am Main: Revolver 2005
Cream 3: contemporary art in culture, 10 curators, 100 contemporary artists, 10 source artists, London: Phaidon 2003

Selected public and corporate collections
FNAC, Paris, FR • Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR • Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, AT

donated by the artist

Michael Blum makes videos, photos, installations and publications. With a humorous yet critical approach, he comments on the fabric of culture, history and politics. The work he presented at the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005) caused quite a stir. Blum founded a small museum in honour of Safiye Behar, a feminist, Marxist Jewish woman from Istanbul, secret mistress of Mustafa Kemal, founder of the Turkish republic, who inspired many of his reforms. The exhibition included a reconstruction of Behar's original Istanbul apartment, along a comprehensive display of documents, photographs, letters, books, as well as a video-interview with Behar's grandson, Chicago-based architect Melik Tutuncu. With his futuristic installation Exodus 2048 (2008) exhibited in Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Blum reacted on the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine. The world Blum created proposed a new Jewish state in Uganda, Israel's government in exile in Brooklyn, and the refugee ship Exodus 2048, which wandered the seas for months before finally being accepted by the Dutch government.

Michael Blum was resident artist at the Rijksakademie in 2000-2001.
He won the Prix du FRAC Ile-de-France (FR) in 1999 and the Minimum Prize of the Fondazione Pistoletto (IT) in 2002.

www.blumology.net