In 2014 Outset Israel supported the production of the video 'The Anonymity of the Night' (4:40 min, 2014) by Assaf Gruber.
The film was presented as an excerpt taken from a longer, non-existing feature film: The protagonist of this mono-drama is a mysterious Israeli lawyer who recounts a personal story to an unidentified listener, not shown in the frame. The cryptic tale depicts a coincidental encounter he had with a young stranger in a Western European city. The meeting with this stranger, who is remembered by the lawyer as an unpleasant, cheeky type, is portrayed as an experience which deprived the old lawyer from his sense of stability. His prejudiced views are tested by the nonchalant behaviour of the young man. The elder remarks about his ‘temporary comrade’ alongside the eloquent descriptions of the surroundings of the city. Objects they ran into during the course of their adventure emphasise the complexity of the lawyer’s personality.
This choreographed performance, presented as a looped video installation investigates how in a situation of uncertainty, suspense and anticipation axiological personal accounts are being measured against daily life predicaments.
The work was first shown at the exhibition 'Agora Artes' for the young fellows of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in May 2014 and was shown as part of a solo exhibition of the artist at the Museum Sztuki, Lodz in 2015. The video was produced by Talking Projects and Zeynep Yücel - zzzzy productions. Additional support was provided by Artis (NY), The Akademie der Künste, Berlin and The Israeli Embassy in Berlin.
Assaf Gruber was born in 1980 in Jerusalem. He graduate from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris and is a laureate of the HISK (Higher Institute of Fine Arts of Ghent). Gruber won the 2008 'Les amis des Beaux–arts’ prize in Paris. In 2012 he was a resident at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien and he holds a fellowship granted by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.
