Chaja Hertog & Nir Nadler

Artist: Chaja Hertog & Nir Nadler

          

Website: www.hertognadler.com

Works at: Seoul Art Space_GeumCheon

Stays in: 2013

Genre: Time-based Arts

Profile: 
Education
Education Hertog:
2008-2010 Royal Academy and Conservatory of Den-haag, Master ArtScience
2001-2005 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Theatre Design, Photography & VAV-Audiovisual Department, Amsterdam
2003 Wimbledon School of Arts, Costume & Technical Arts Department, Student exchange program, UK
2000-2001 Academy Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, Sculpture Department
1994-1997 Wizo-Canada High School of Arts, Fine Arts studies, Haifa, Israel

Education Nadler:
2008-2011 DasArts, Master of Theatre, Amsterdam
2001-2006 Gerrit Rietveld Academy, VAV-Audiovisual Department, Amsterdam
2000-2001 Academy Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht, Painting Department
1992-1995 Wizo-Canada school of Arts, Fine arts department, Haifa, Israel

Solo exhibition
2011  - Nasmaak - Moira, Utrecht
2010  - In het Land der Blinden - Artist in residence exhibition in Scheltema Complex, Leiden
2009  - Embody  - Janco Dada Museum, Ein-Hod, Israel.
2007  - No Strings Attached - CBK Amsterdam

Group exhibition& screenings
2013
- Festivalhits: Dutch Shorts - screening, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam
- Cinedance Festival - Pointaken III dancefilm project, EYE Film Institute, Amsterdam
- International Film Festival Rotterdam - screening, Rotterdam
2012
- Nation for Two is chosen for the Selected Dutch Shorts 2012, EYE Film Institute, The Netherlands
- The Junge Hunde Festival - performance festival and group exhibition, Aarhus, Denmark
- Dutch Film Festival - screening, Utrecht
- 7 Days - festival by the National Trust, Calke Abbey, Uk
- Biorhythm - group exhibition, The Science Centre of Singapore
- Souvenirs from Earth - a cable TV station for contemporary art, broadcast of several video works
- Motel Mozaique festival - video installation, Rotterdam
- Siobhan Davies dance studio’s - video installation, London
2011
- Slowdown Winter Performance Festival - Amsterdam
- Cinedans Dance Film Festival - video installation, group exhibition, Melkweg, Amsterdam
- Popoganda - group exhibition, Academic Centre for Arts Wizo, Haifa, Israel
- Monitoring - 28th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kunstverein, Kassel, Germany
- Biorhythm group exhibition - Eyebeam Gallery as part of the World Science Festival, New York
- Platteland op Podium - mini festival, Paradiso Amsterdam
- Self-Contained - public participatory installation, The Hague’s Central Station, hosted by Het Nutshuis
2010
- Media Art Friesland - group exhibition - First prize Young Talent, Friesland
- Biorhythm, group exhibition - Science Gallery, Dublin
- 4270 Seconds of Longing - Israeli-Spanish Video Art Compilation Project
- What is religion? - WHcreation, online exhibition
2009
- ArtEZ festival - guest teacher at the art academy AKI. Enschede
- The Future - screening, Monkey Town, Brooklyn NY
2008
- Fresh Fruit, DasArts performance event, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
- EEA (European Exchange Academy) - guest teacher. Beelitz-Heilstätten, Germany
- Art Marathon - Contemporary Israeli Art, group exhibition, Jewish Historic Museum, Amsterdam
- Dwalingen - group exhibition, Kunsteyssen, Alkmaar,
2007
 - Mixed feelings in Mixed Media - exhibition & lecture series, ISA (International School of Amsterdam)
 - Kassel documentary film & video festival - screening, A-34 Nomination - film production stipends
 - Media art Friesland - group exhibition, Friesland
 - Desolation Angels - Group exhibition, Cluster Gallery. Berlin, Germany
 - Via Dolorosa - exhibition, CBK Gelderland, Arnhem
 - i.dentity - Group exhibition, Stichting Kop, Breda
2006
- Mediamatic Salon - public presentation of The Monograph project, Post CS, Amsterdam
- Museum N8 - Concert for church organ & teakettles. Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
- Breakin’ Walls ¬- made by the media, art & theatre festival, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
- Nederlands Film Festival - screening, Utrecht
- W139 gallery - group exhibition, Post CS, Amsterdam
- ArtOlive/Kunstbeeld Jong Talent Awards - group exhibition, honour prize, Westergasfabariek, Amsterdam
- Media Art Friesland - group exhibition, Friesland
- TENT Academy Awards - Via Dolorosa wins the Public prize, Cinerama Rotterdam

Award
Grants & Prizes:
2013
 - Mondriaan Fonds - Start stipendium (Nir Nadler) 
2012
- Point Taken III (Mediafonds, het Fonds Podiumkunsten, NTR and Cinedans) - grant for the      realisation of the dance film Harvest
- Netherlands Film Fund – grant for the realisation of the film Nation for Two
¬- KUNSTENISRAËL – grant for the realisation of the film Nation for Two
2010
- Fund BKVB flexible work budget - grant for residency at Scheltema complex
- Media Art Friesland - First prize Young Talent -The Four Riders
- Max Cohen Fund - grant for the realisation of the video installation The Four Riders
2009
- AFK Amsterdam Fund for the Art – grant for the development of the film Nation for Two
- Netherlands Film Fund – grant for the development of the film Nation for Two
2007
- Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival - Via Dolorosa is nominated for A-34 - film production stipends.
2006
- ArtOlive/Kunstbeeld Jong Talent Awards The Monograph & Via Dolorosa, Honourable Mention
- TENT Academy Awards - Via Dolorosa wins the Public prize
- Berlage Fund – grant for the realization of The Monograph project
- Skor Foundation – grant for The Monograph publication

Residency
Upcoming 2014 - Sacatar - 3 months Artist in Residence, Brazil
2013   - Seoul Art Space Geumcheon - 3 months Artist in Residence, Korea
2013   - Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture - 2 month artist in residence, Maine, USA
2010   - Scheltema complex - 6 month studio residency, Leiden, The Netherlands

Works: 
 
 Undercover (Van Gogh) - staged photographic series, variable formats, 2003-2006

 Self-contained - Public participatory installation, 2011

 Mind the Gap - performance installation, 2009 – on-going

 InstruMen - three channel video installation, 2005

 The Four Riders (exhibition view) - four channel HD video installation, 2010

Chaja Hertog & Nir Nadler

Chaja Hertog and Nir Nadler are an artist duo based in Amsterdam, whose work is situated on the border between film, performance and spatial installations. Apart from their partnership in art, Hertog & Nadler are also partners in life. This blurring between the professional and the personal factors prominently into their creative process where craftsmanship merges with abstract storytelling.

The Eye of the Beholder

Karin Spaink (Journalist, Writer, Free Speech Advocate and Social Critic)

 

The artist duo Hertog & Nadler spend much energy on the look of their work. Every detail is minutely attended to, no matter how time-consuming. The result is usually picture-perfect. There is no compromise whatsoever in the production or craftsmanship. Their images are aesthetic, seductive and convincing. They are complete. They’re perfect.

 

Usually – well, at least for me – that would also mean that they are dull. One-dimensional. Shiny. Seamless. Done. Bereft of any space that tickles the imagination; all the unkempt bits that might otherwise have scratched you, carefully polished and scoured away.

 

By definition, perfection denies all difficulty; it negates effort, conflict and struggle. To that end, it even denies itself. It pretends to have come about ‘accidentally’ or ‘naturally’. It does its utmost to hide just how much effort it took to create its own semblance of effortlessness. Not so with Hertog & Nadler’s work. Yes, the execution of their work is perfect; their presentations are aesthetically pleasing. What is not safe is their imagery, their imagination – their content, if you wish – the idea that they embody.

 

No matter how professionally you film a riot (see <Harvest>), and no matter how professionally you dress up the actors who play the part of your police: that perfection melts away when the rebellion that they repress turns out to be the shivering of olive trees. And suddenly things turn around. Precisely because the execution of the movie, the filming of that act, the staging of that scene, is done so perfectly, and precisely because there’s nothing left that we, the audience, can latch onto or seek refuge in, all we can do is watch. We can only listen, and recline in our chairs, because that’s the only support left to us. There it is: the absurdity of the riot police beating up olive trees merely because they were shivering; the absurdity of the riot police beating up olive trees as if they were people. The absurdity of the riot police; beating up people.

 

Hertog & Nadler’s performative language – often involves superposition. They rework two ideas, two movements, two approaches into a single new image. They capture a contradiction in a unifying concept, while still embodying its underlying notions. The maneuver puts the audience stuck in the middle of the mess, craving for breath.

 

The performance <Mind the Gap>, did just that. In a small intimate room Nadler was stretched out on a small pedestal, clad in a suit. Thirty centimeters above him, dangling from an invisible harness, hung Chaja. Her hair touched his face. Their eyes were locked. Both ignored the outside world. They were so close, but couldn’t touch; they were separated, but had no distance. Neither moved: she couldn’t, he wouldn’t. Two beings – united, yet never one. The image is etched on my retina. I’ll never be able to rid myself of that image, and I don’t want to either.

 

That’s what Hertog & Nadler do. They create perfect, simple, plain images that go straight to the heart and to the eye, straight to the mind and to the brain. Simple, plain and perfect images that provide so many angles that hook themselves into you with tiny tentacles. Images that, once they have been seen, can never not have existed before. When seen, they become archetypal.

 

Some art – especially conceptual art – loses its edge, part of its aesthetic appeal or intellectual challenge once it has been explained and has understood. It is tamed by rational discourse, shelved by the spectator, who is now able to say ‘Oh that is what they wanted to express’. Not Hertog & Nadler’s work. It doesn’t lose its impact when discussed and debated. Upon reflection, it continues to surprise and captivate. It only deepens with understanding.

 

So there we have the best of both worlds: images that grasp the heart and surprise the brain, and that both satisfy and challenge.