Ningy the Gingy

Performance - Installation

Shelter 209 Program No. 1

Ramat Aviv, Israel

1989

"The question of the artist's status within society was raised from a similar angle in a performance where Zakhem proclaims, "I, Dan Zakhem, a Zionist artist in the Land of Israel, light this beacon…. And to the glory of the State of Israel" (from the beacon-lighting ceremony of the Independence Day).  Underlying the work is the artist's tacit question:  in whose name is he, as a Zionist artist in Israel, lighting his beacon?  This requires him to come to grips with a local, political reality, although without actually defiling the sacred cows of that reality.  According to Zakhem, the political aspect of his works serves to hold up a mirror to society at large."  

Michael Sgan Cohen (from Dada Head catalog 1991)