Ruti SELA & Maayan AMIR
Beyond Guilt – The Trilogy, 2003–2005

(still)
video; 43’ 
Courtesy of the artists
© Ruti Sela & Maayan Amir

Ruti Sela and Maayan Amir’s joint video series explores power relations while playing on their disruption. Shot in Tel Aviv, the trilogy explores and reveals the impact of militarism on the identity of Israeli youth through propositions regarding objectification, possession and the recording of these. The country, which is in constant military conflict, operates a strict military system in which all citizens of legal age are conscripted for military service. This common, identity-forming experience is embedded in all spheres of life and has a significant impact on private life and the functioning of human relationships. While recording the footages, the artists are actively involved in shaping events and giving rise to various situations: seducing men in the bathrooms of bars, organising intimate encounters on dating sites and inviting prostitutes to their hotel rooms. The participants of the meetings do answer the artists’ questions, but the informal conversations in the almost reality-show-like scenes, mainly broaching on sexual topics, sometimes take unexpected and serious turns. The work reveals the intimate intertwining of sexuality and military-political identity and shows the impact of the traumas of violence and war on the experience of pleasure and on the need and ability to create intimate relationships.

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