Sharon Paz

The video installation deals with loneliness and isolation. Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s essay in The Origins of Totalitarianism that addresses loneliness as the common ground for terror and tyrannical regimes’ use of isolation as a means of oppression. The work is made from a collection of voices from all over the world reacting to our current condition and transformed the answers through avatars into a virtual space.

an interactive video installation that positions the viewer in-between reality and fiction, based on research into the Olympic games in 1936 Berlin, focusing on two very different women who were eventually used for fascist propaganda. The video is shot like an interview, addressing past events, partly as a reenactment of the archival testimony and interviews with Margaret Lambert (Gretel Bergmann) and Leni Riefenstahl, later in their life. In the exhibition the project is presented in two parts, the visual research in- cluding drawings and prints and the interactive video.  

Video Installation, 2019 || Two channel HD, 8:30 minute

Living in a dynamic world where people are on the move, we often deal with changes and acceptance of new situations. The work observes the experience of stepping into someone else life, like wearing a costume, highlighting the constant shift between belonging and alienation.

Video Installation, 2017 || Multi channel HD, 19:35 minutes

The work is based on a short story from Isolde Kurz, it was published in 1907 referring to World War I. A young woman, who is the storyteller, is visiting her hometown on Memorial Day. In the cemetery she meet a small lady who lost her son in the war, the son name does not appear on the memorial stone. A veteran comfort the mother, later as the mother leave, he tells the real story of the son tragic death. The mother does not know the truth about her son way of dying and why he is not mention on the gravestone. The secret is a heavy load on the veteran. In between secrets and white lie, the veteran protects the mother from the painful truth. The video was shot in Waldfriedhof, Halbe, Germany at the military cemetery and contains documentary footage from a burial ceremony of 71 unknown solders from World War II, that were found in the area. The Battle of Halbe was the final bottle to end the war between the red Army and the German Ninth Army coming from Berlin. The casualties on both sides were extremely high. There are more then 25,000 Germans buried in the cemetery at Halbe, making it the largest war cemetery in Germany from World War II. Many thousands more are still lying in the Brandenburg forests area around the cemetery. Based on a real person, the film depict an extra character - the “umbetter”, he is looking for the dead soldieries like a detective, digging for the rest and pieces of history, working with a metal detector he looks for any traces and bring the soldiers rest to burial. The work touches a grey zone, the heroism of those soldiers is questionable and so is their right to be given the memory space. Still, 'The dead have the right to rest in peace' the “umbetter” claims.

SLEEP deals with lost and memorable, war and heroism. The images of solders and heroes are presented in the film with different shades.

Video Installation,2017 || Single channel HD, 7:50 minutes

HOMESICK is inspired by the short story “The Kitchen Clock” by the German post-war writer and playwright Wolfgang Borchert. The short story deals with a young man who lost his home and his parents during a bomb attack. The video was shot at Volkspark Humboldthain in Berlin Mitte, in the park was a high bunker with two flaked towers, partly bombed, creating an artificial mountain integrated into a new park. “Homesick” puts the war-torn story of the district in relation to the current situation in the Mediterranean and shows how stories of war, reconstruction and new beginnings recur and interfere.

Video Installation, 2017 || Two channel HD, 6:00 minutes

SEA and LAND is a two channel panoramic projection placed in a corner. The images scroll from left to right, in between video and photographs taken from a variety of sources. The movement tempo is monotonic, hypnotizing, creating a collage of images. In between the sea and the land mimic a stream of consciousness, like in social media, images of tents, migrants, historical photos, in between lands, vacation resorts and borders.The beautiful landscape across the sea includes hope for a new promises land.

Video Installation, 2017 || Single channel HD, 11:00 minutes

A large vertical projection onto the gallery window is placing the viewers both in and out, looking in into an office space or out into the garden. The viewer becomes a witness, the work presents an unstable situation, inbetween being included or excluded, using the labyrinth of bureaucracy as a border and control.

Video Installation, 2017 || Single channel HD, 8:00 minutes

A projection screen becomes a gate, suspended in the air, shaped as a schematic two dimensional tent or a house. The video projected onto the flying screen, includes a walk around places the artist cannot reach because of her passport and nationality (Israeli). The projection mirrors the computer screen, “walking” around the neighboring country, Lebanon, surfing in different places, looking for the directions to her hometown in Israel. Onto the aerial maps and landscape images, human shadows passing by.

Video Installation, 2017 || Single channel HD, 6:00 minutes

A construction of cardboard boxes creates a city model. A large video projection transforms the boxes into diverse houses taken from different places in the world, creating a collage of a new place. Inside the houses windows, different images from social media scrolls, bringing the inside and outside into dialog. The audience is welcome to walk around the boxes and participate as a live performer in the work.