10 Questions with Uriel Ziv Azancot - Magazine Issue02

Uriel Ziv Azancot is a selected and featured artist in Al-Tiba9 magazine ISSUE02, interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj about his photographic project MCGUFIN and EYES WIDE SHUT.

The core of Uriel Ziv Azancot’s interest lies in the thin line separating vision from castrated vision, light from darkness, movement which symbolizes life from immobility which means death. He desires to try to understand and cast meaning into the process that occurs from the moment he looks at something to the moment he interprets it, the moment of reflection versus the moment of truth, assuming that the truth has many strange facets.

What kind of education or training helped you develop your skillset?

I studied cinema in an autodidact and obsessive way: when I decided at a young age that cinema fascinated me I created a list of directors from every country. I naturally started with French cinema, so if for example, I decided to watch films by Godard I would sit and watch all his films from the first to the last including backstage and short films he had created at the start of his career. And I did the same with all the directors (and I do mean ‘all’) whose work is engraved in cinematic history. I subsequently studied cinema at a cinematic school and during this time realized that what I really wanted to do was video art and experimental cinema. I, therefore, commenced art studies, during which time I understood that what interests me in art is the combination of the screen and the object and the object and its surroundings. One could say that the breath and inspiration of 'Nam June Paik' are on me.

Let’s begin by talking about your relationship to sculpture, how you came to build your work in the way in which it has evolved. It seems that the discourse of your work is about identities that are constantly constructed and reconstructed, copied, pasted, transformed and transfigured in the various online media platforms in which we engage with, a connection between human and screen, a connection that is both physical as well as metaphysical. How did that come about?

As I already mentioned, my background is the moving picture i.e. the video cinema, etc. As a film and video artist I always missed the physical and powerful sense of space and the objects within it, and so in my work, I try to cast movement into the object, where the movement can be expressed in a conceptual way, such as the movement of a body around the object, or as a sound and light movement. This obsessive need for movement led me eventually to the small screen, the smartphone screen, which nowadays can be found in the pocket of almost every person on earth. This screen in its physical and metaphysical essence is the embodiment of movement and can exist in any place and time, the fingers constantly sliding on the glass, fingers that represent many different identities, with social agendas, identities that lead parallel lives in digital universes with metaphysical characteristics.

Is there a predetermined object language you want your artworks to embody? What do you want them to add up to? Because it seems that the choices and selections you make in the use of each material imply the construction of a live body based on a code. So what is the code?

I think that symbols of movement are very important to me and therefore I connect more to the meaning of the word 'object' and less to the classic word 'statue' because a statue essentially belongs to immobility. From a material point of view, I have an affinity for cold industrial materials such as stainless steel, mirrors, and technological materials such as screens, etc. When I am in the process of creating an artwork, I try to combine the cold with the heat, where the cold is embodied in the industrial materials, and the heat is embodied in materials that are more organic. Another combination that fascinates me is the combination between temptation and aversion, which are essentially the basis of vision, where the 'code' itself exists in my inner need to create a forced dialogue between vision/observation and the castration of vision. This dialogue forms the conceptual ‘code’ for me and precedes the manifestation of a physical body in the form of an object in one space or another.

Where did you get your imagery from (What, If any, sources did you use)?

 As an artist, everything that exists in this world or in other worlds (physical metaphysical worlds, etc.) is a potential material that can lead to inspiration which may lead wherever it leads. When I look at the world I do not rule out anything, I try to view it in a clean and unprejudiced way, as a little boy, and have found something of interest I ask myself how can I pour into what I saw meaning that will lead to form. Technically I have hundreds of films, images, and videotapes: from images of industrial materials to images from films that inspire me, I have digital materials that I collect on my mobile phone and on several computers and physical materials in the studio and at home. Like many artists, I am a compulsive hoarder.

How do sound and light interact in this piece?

I will respond to this question in a general way. Sound and light preoccupy me because they contain motion and warmth; the video and the cinema are the pure incarnation of the movement created using these means, without which there is nothing. As a creator, I am fascinated by the prospect of taking these means and "pouring" them into a passive object, so that in fact I "create" (in the full sense of the word) a ‘word’ whose meaning is the basis for the existence of life in the world.

Do you consider yourself a sculptor? Installation artist? Or do you consider yourself an artist who works with what’s at hand? How can you describe your practice for our readers?

In truth, I am not inclined to unambiguous definitions. I consider myself an ‘antiquary artist': I collect ideas and materials around me, some may materialize as sculptural objects whilst others may serve as installations. Materials and ideas have their own desires and I try to find the balance and move with them in a way that is critical on the one hand and free on the other.

They say if you could be anything but an artist, don’t be an artist. What career are you neglecting right now by being an artist?

Unfortunately or to my delight, I don’t forsake anything, I'm not really good at doing other things. Art has chosen me and so I live and breathe art from morning to the small hours of the night. I am constantly in a state of gathering ideas and materials or in a state of drawing, etc. I have a fantasy to live solely from my art, but at present, I am forced to work in a clerical job that allows me to continue engaging with my ideas and also support my family to a certain extent.

What current project are you working on?

It’s a project I have been working on for the past 4 years. It is an installation in two parts for two spaces. It will contain a variety of motion-exhibiting objects with space aspects, some based on motion and light sensors and some containing screens and closed-circuit cameras. Unfortunately, I live in an environment that does not promote art and/or freedom of expression in any form. In addition, my installations combine technological materials that are quite expensive. So to move from sketches to a physical exhibition space I must secure the help of a body and/or the right person. Once I find them… I promise that magic will be revived.

What is your favorite genre of music to listen to while working?

 I love listening to indie and electronic music. I'm currently listening to ‘Singularity’, Jon Hopkin’s recent and excellent album which sends you on a digital-spiritual journey and that's the space I'm at right now.

Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations?

There are several exhibitions that I am supposed to attend, in addition, there is a new project that I have been working on for several months which involves sculpting performed by technology.