Dedicated to Uri Katzenstein (1951-2018) and curated by Meital Aviram, “Executives’ Amusements” is the second part of a double outdoor screening of works Keren Cytter, Uri Katzenstein, Shahar Freddy Kislev, Talia Link, Mika Rottenberg, and Miri Segal from the Center’s Video Archive. In contrast with “Langue de Chat” – the first part of this project that dealt with bizarreness – this second part will consists of works from the early 1990s till today that capture the absurdity of life at the turn of the millennium and the apocalyptic spirit that accompanied it. Executive toys such as floating globes and Newton’s cradle symbolize the spirit of the free market and its ensuing alienation. Furthermore, these objects were given to make employees feel at home, to give a sense domesticity to the cubical, mirroring the paradoxical attitudes of companies and corporations that compare themselves to families. If in the 1990s executive toys were used for fragments of leisure time within the framework of work time, labor, today, is about slacking off and hiding behind your screen while scrolling through porn or Facebook. But originally, executive toys were talismans of fondness – signs of collegiality. These manifestations of appreciation are today no longer popular, due to the fact that the welfare system has somewhat collapsed, employees have been losing benefits while being asked to give up their personal lives, or rather, to perform all their activities – labor and leisure – in the workplace. Following this theme, Aviram selected works that define leisure moments within the frame of labor.

Uri Katzenstein

Home, 2001

Video still

Courtesy of the artist