2 / 9 – 4 / 11 – 2018

Opus in Artem presents, for the first time in Europe, Dina Goldstein`s Snapshots from the Garden of Eden at the Jewish Museum of Venice.
Watch here the Making of … the series.

In the occasion of the 19th European Day of Jewish Culture, which in Italy this year will be held on Sunday 14 October, the Jewish Museum of Venice has decided to participate with a special show by Canadian photographer Dina Goldstein, starting 2 September 2018.

The pictures, in striking black and white, juxtapose biblical myths and everyday life, creating images with a powerful narrative impact and showing a totally original way of looking at the stories of Jewish tradition. The episodes and protagonists of the stories depicted are for the most part set in contemporary times and spaces that produce a strongly alienating effect on the public, including that of a man intent on modelling a modern robot Golem (a clay giant in the service of its own creator) or a lascivious King Solomon lying in a bed between two unclothed women.

“The theme of this year’s Jewish Culture Days is Storytelling, and we in various ways – says Michela Zanon, Coopculture Director of the Museum – will tell you the story of our ghetto and the personalities who have passed through it”. Dina Goldstein’s photographs interpret and re-propose ancient Jewish stories in a new way, making it possible to tell and read them from other points of view or with different eyes, fitting perfectly with the theme of storytelling.

This exhibition will allow visitors to immerse themselves in the vivid and provocative imagination of this artist, who refers to cultural archetypes and narratives inspired by the subconscious and the human condition, expressed through a cinematographic technique and a methodology that follows a precise pre-production process. Leaning on the visual language of pop surrealism, Dina stages narrative compositions that aim to eradicate prejudice, challenging notions of beauty, gender, sex and religion. Her work has been the subject of essays and articles in the world’s media; her projects are studied and taught in art schools, photography programs and gender courses; in particular, The Fallen Princesses is published in several primary school textbooks.