Moshe Ninio
° 1953
Born in Tel Aviv (IL), lives in Paris (FR), lives in Tel Aviv (IL).
Moshe Ninio was born in Tel Aviv in 1953. He is currently based there and in Paris. Although his artistic production is relatively small, he plays an important part in the development of the Israeli art scene – as a thinker and curator too. Ninio combines an approach that is essentially spiritual – mystical even – with political awareness. Jewish culture, on which the state of Israel is founded, is first and foremost a culture of the word. This renders the image problematic, as suggested by visual works within the Israeli artistic tradition that might be termed ‘dry’ – the paintings of Moshe Kupferman (1926–2003), for instance – located as they are at the cusp of abstraction and immanence. Ninio translates this attitude into an interrogation of the capacity of the image, while maintaining a dialogue with how this has occurred internationally in recent decades. He uses a limited range of photographic images, which have substantial meaning potential and which are presented on the brink of illegibility: the bow-wave of a ship (not shown), the shape of a helicopter or the silhouette of a communications tower, as featured in his contribution to Documenta IX. These images are held within a strict presentation framework. They may frequently be linked to worldly power; yet they seek to get beyond this image and to convey a glimpse of a different order, an energy that cannot be named, imagined or conceived.
