In 1917, Franz Kafka wrote A Report to an Academy, a lecture from the mouth of a captured ape who became increasingly human, to survive among humans. Now, from within his humanity, he speaks back before a scientific conference. 102 years later, Paul B. Preciado, one of the most radical and interesting philosophers of our time, stands before thousands of psychoanalysts in Paris and speaks to them from within the body and consciousness of a trans person, defined by them as a mental illness. Preciado turns Kafka’s story into a metaphor for his position, and an original means to formulate his argumentations. In a third incarnation, as part of the exhibition A Report, artist Amir Yatziv breathes virtual life into the image of the Kafkaesque ape Peter, presented to us, the audience specializing in humanity.

What connection can be made between these three talking monsters? How does the act of speech serve to establish sharp boundaries between the human and the animal, and at the same time defiantly destroy them? What can we learn from the words of someone whose speech is forbidden? And how do we speak, when we are not supposed to?

Dr. Zohar Elmakias is an anthropologist and writer, a postdoctoral fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and the resident thinker at the Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv-Yafo.

The lecture will be held in Hebrew.

Duration: 45 mins.

Admission: 20 NIS

For tickets, click here

Amir Yatziv

A Report, 2026. 

videostill, live simulation. Courtesy of the artist.