| You Could Be Lucky |
| Experimental video | dv | color | 8'0'' | Netherlands / United Kingdom | 2004 |
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© Yael Bartana
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Oliver Cromwell's republican government in Britain saw an era of social austerity in which gambling and drinking were punishable crimes. After Cromwell's death, England once again became a monarchy. In 1660 Charles II took the throne, the forbidding laws were annulled and the tradition of the "Grand National" became well established as a social and cultural activity which is associated with the king who is known for his fondness of horses. The "Grand National"- one of the biggest race courses in Britain – is a site at which cultural heritage, history and contemporary British society meet. Since the days of Charles II it hosts the peak of the social season. It is a glamorous event that attracts thousands every year, including members of the Royal Family. Bartana arrives at this social event in order to focus on the audience. In her previous work Bartana focused on rituals, memorials, and bestowing of social ceremonies that are part of Israeli society. In doing so, she documented events that involved issues of local, national, public, and personal identity. The primary aim of civilian rituals is the consolidation of a distinct local collective identity and intensification of the feeling of belonging of the individual. As time passes, the gesture alone remains in its updated form, but is occasionally empty. The original meaning of the ceremony is flattened, and what remains is a symbol and a mere reminder of what was before. In the "Grand National", commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial, Bartana investigates the socialization rituals that take place around the race course and examines the tension that is created between the site, the past culture, and today's society. Among others, Bartana chooses to focus on an event that is considered by many as the highlight of the happening – Ladies Day - an ostentatious show of fashion and high heels, an extroverted exhibition of colour and stereotypical femininity.
Yael Bartana was born in 1970 in Kfar-Yehozkel, Israel. She has a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, an MFA from the New York School of Visual Arts and participated in the Rijksakademie artist-in-residence program from 2000-2001. She has had solo exhibitions in many countries, including Germany, Israel, Australia, and Japan, and has won various prizes such as the Anselm Kiefer Prize in 2003 and the Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis in 2005. Her work focuses mainly on the relationship between ritual and identity in Israeli society, looking at the practices that constitute identity, especially in its relation with traditional and contemporary notions of gender, place, and ethnicity. In most of the pieces Bartana uses documentary footage shot in public or semi-public spaces at collective events that contribute to identity formation, such as shooting drills for trainee female soldiers or the carnivalesque festivities of the Jewish holiday 'Purim'. Bartana currently lives and works in Amsterdam.
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