born in Israel, 1969
lives and works in Tel Aviv

Guy Ben-Ner's drawings from the mid-1990s reflect his deep connection to the heritage of Duchamp and readymade - the connection between body and object, the way in which our most intimate world is saturated
with objects, and Eros as the driving force of things. In all of his later video works, one can identify these basic motifs. The flow charts presented here, which set in motion a possible catastrophe, echo particularly in his well-known work Stealing Beauty (2007), which was filmed in various IKEA branches in Israel, Europe and America. The logic behind IKEA's method of production and sales has pervaded the works of many artists, but it seems that Ben-Ner has given it the most sweeping and absurd expression: He and his family try to fulfill the IKEA dream by making the spaces of mega-stores their homes. They lie in the display beds, sit in the chairs that are for sale, and blur the distinction between store and home. This is ostensibly the complete fulfillment of IKEA's vision - your home is our store, and vice versa. The price tags attached to the objects make the message completely ridiculous.

The video I'd give it to you if I could but I borrowed it (2007) has been shown in Israel a number of times, but it is difficult to refrain from showing it again at the exhibition: Ben-Ner and his two children dismantle sculptures in a museum in Münster, Germany, build a bicycle with their parts (now practical and functioning), and go out to ride with it in the streets of the city. The guerilla action conducted in the IKEA stores repeats itself at the museum; in both sites, it is forbidden and undermines the basic rules of the place. The analogy created between the store objects and the museum objects is the concluding chord of the exhibition.