VCU news

By Leila Ugincius

Nir Evron prefers his art to present important issues while allowing viewers to think for themselves.

“I’m an artist, not an activist,” said Evron, whose “Nir Evron: Projected Claims” runs Nov. 6 to Jan. 17 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Depot Gallery. “But I work with reality. I work with what’s out there and it’s important for me to address those issues. [But] as an artist, I don’t want to be too direct and I don’t want to tell you what to think.”

As an artist, I don’t want to be too direct and I don’t want to tell you what to think.

Working in film, video and photography, Evron explores the intersections of history, culture, politics, identity, religion and shifting borders, primarily focused on his native Israel and its areas of conflict. Presented by the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, “Projected Claims” examines these sweeping forces through landscape, architecture and city planning.

Evron’s work focuses on history in general, but more specifically it examines historical recollections and representation, he told more than 100 VCU School of the Arts students during a recent lecture previewing “Projected Claims.”

“It is an investigation into the relationship between representations of the past and the way we understand current reality,” he said. “In the heart of this investigation you can find the … relationship between photography and history, time and technology, and the exchange between the photographer, the photographs and the viewer.

“It is also equally important for me to bring forward the historical nature of the different types of media that I use, so if I decide to work with photography … the project has to be specifically tailored to the medium and to bring forward the history of that medium.”

Evron shot this series in Rawabi, a Palestinian city under development in the West Bank. His photographs layer double-exposures of windows and doorways of the city’s buildings under construction. His focus on architectural thresholds echoes the fragile status of the city, itself on the threshold of existence, and demonstrates the artist’s mastery of film, video and photography, combining technical craft with rigorous conceptual exploration.

While Evron takes pains to balance the historical with the media in his work, he ultimately has just one goal.

“It has to be art at the end of the day,” he said. “It has to be art.”

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