Yael Bartana until 03.09. KUNSTVEREIN IN HAMBURG

Israeli artist Yael Bartana's films are observant and personal, and combine a detached documentary style with a barely perceptible subjective atmosphere. Bartana, who lives in Tel Aviv and Amsterdam, looks at the familiar with a gaze sharpened by distance; she is an involved outsider who shows the people of her homeland during typical celebrations and rituals. "Ceremonies organized by the state and military celebrations define this tradition and shape national identity," she has said. "I am interested in the dynamic of a state that dictates a certain viewpoint and of the individuals that accept this viewpoint." The video Trembling Time, 2001, for example, was filmed in Tel Aviv on the day that commemorates those who died in the Israeli wars; a moment of silence unexpectedly interrupts the flow of cars along a highway. In When Adar Enters, 2003, we see children and adults wearing fancy dress in the Orthodox districts of Jerusalem during the traditional Purim festivities. Low Relief II, 2004, depicts a joint demonstration of Israeli and Palestinian youth, accompanied by soldiers. It is the film's apparent casualness that captures the underlying aggression. Bartana shows individual identity subsumed by ritual action, and in doing so makes the viewer aware of how social power structures exercise a control as omnipresent as a shadow. Jens Asthoff