ABOUT ME
Born in 1976 in Argentina, Victor Alaluf was interested in the Arts from an early age. Victor moved to Israel at the age of 19. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Haifa in Israel. Today Victor lives and works in Berlin. His art is mainly Installation-Art, which combines drawings, sculpting, video art and other mediums.
Victor’s work can be described as biographic but not in the technical sense of a diary-book or an archive. The artist’s personal past experiences serve as a source of background associations from which he draws inspiration and which serve as a starting point for further reflection. In this sense Victor’s years-long confrontation with illness and his experiences of leaving his home town and moving from place to place, are reflected in his work.
One aspect of Victor’s work expresses a personal process of confronting various aspects of life, perhaps death, which we tend to avoid. However, instead of avoidance and suppression, the installations present us with an alternative based on an uninhibited acceptance of those elements that are normally considered repulsive. We are presented with a combination of converse elements, internally interwoven, but all revolving around the confrontation between illness, pain, degeneration and death on the one hand and serenity, gentleness and aesthetics on the other hand. Moreover, it prompts us to reexamine our dichotomized understanding of the pleasant-repulsive and life-death polarities that together as a whole constitute our humanness.
Recurring themes of Victor’s work have to do with issues of fragility and structure. Interestingly, precisely those elements that give structure and stability to the human body are themselves very sensitive and fragile. These works also raise the question whether some of the social issues we encounter in life are mirrored by the delicate construction of our own organic bodies.
Another aspect of Victor’s work has to do with collecting discarded objects and attempting to give them a new life. This reflects Victor’s focus on issues of past and future and the relation of these notions to the question of identity. Are we determined by our given past or by the decisions we make in the present and which shape our future? How should we understand our commitment to the past on the one hand and to the future on the other hand?
Other works refer to the notion of “home”. Especially in recent years, huge masses of people are required to leave their home countries and look for a new beginning in a totally new environment. Questions such as “what makes a home?”, as well as the relation between the experiences we carry with us and those we encounter in our new environment, are recurrent themes in Victor’s works.
Other projects express an attempt to bring to awareness and call for reflection on our current social structure and moral values, which constitute the connecting threads of humanity.
Education
2009 – MFA – Haifa University in Israel
2007 – BFA – Haifa University in Israel
1999 – Graphic design – Avni Institute in Tel-Aviv, Israel
Awards and Prizes
2016 – “Tied Hands” – 6th Prize, International Confederation of Art Critics – London.
2007 – Vidra Foundation Award in contemporary art for a young artist – Haifa University
2007 – Excellence Scholarship – City of Haifa – Fund in honor of Colonel Beno Fishbuch
Biennial
2016 - BACOS – Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo Emergente Eve-Maria Zimmermann – San Miguel de Abona, Tenerife, Spain
2016 – Santorini Art Biennale – Santorini, Greece
2015 – “Omboyere – Bianal Misionera de Arte 2015”, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina
2008 – The Biennial for Young artists – Ramat-Hasharon, Israel
Exhibitions
2017 – BIAEMX – International Art Biennial El Escarabajo – México
2017 – Oblivion – MPG Art – Vittoria – Italy
2017 – Fomenar – Arte Borgo Gallery – Rome
2017 – AAF Selection – EXP Art Studio&Gallery, Bibbiena, Italy
2017 – Affordable Art Fair – Milan, Italy
2016 – Vanitas#1 – LoosenArt – Cagliari – Italy
2016 – @Berlin Walls – Priests & Prawns – WBB Willner Brauerei – Berlin
2016 – BACOS – Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo Emergente Eve-Maria Zimmermann – San Miguel de Abona, Tenerife, Spain
2016 – Santorini Art Biennial – Santorini, Greece
2016 – Lynx 2016 Second Edition – Trieste, Ajdovščinam, Zagabria, Livorno
2016 – Ar[t]Cevia – International Art Festival – Arcevia, Italy
2016 – In Between – Kulturschöpfer Gallery, Berlin
2016 – Arte Laguna Art Prize – Arsenale - Venice, Italy
2016 – “Reflection, Self-reflection” – Bernheimer Contemporary – Monbijou Residence, Berlin
2015 – “KIK Seven – Time Lies” – Kino International, Berlin, Germany
2015 – “The Taste of Addiction” – Bernheimer Contemporary – Monbijou Residence, Berlin
2015 – “Highlights International Art Fair Munich”, Munich, Germany
2015 – “Omboyere – Bianal Misionera de Arte 2015”, Posadas, Misiones, Argentina
2015 – “Who Cares” – Bernheimer Contemporary – Monbijou Residence, Berlin
2014 – “Barefoot in the Dark” – Amerika-Haus Munich, Munich Art Week Opening
2014 – “Vanitas” – Bernheimer Contemporary, Munich, Germany
2014 – Kunstautomat im Jüdisches Museum Berlin – Berlin, Germany
2013 – 10 Years Anniversary Fine Arts Department Haifa University – Accomplished Students
2012 – “Barefoot in the Dark” – Juan Yapari Museum, Posadas Argentina
2011 – RAW Artists’ Studios Gallery – Romantik, Realismus, Revolusion – Berlin, Germany
2010 – RAW Artists’ Studios Gallery – New Structures – Berlin, Germany
2009 – “Northern Exposure” Exhibition – Artists’-Studios Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2009 – “Oxygen”– MFA Exhibition – Haifa University, Israel
2008 – “Gregory” Exhibition – Ein-Hod Art Museum
2008 – The Biennial for Young artists – Ramat-Hasharon, Israel
2008 – “Shadow” – Solo Exhibition – Artists-House Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2008 – “First Opportunity” Exhibition for young artists – Agrippas Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
2007 – Graduates exhibition of the Creative Arts Department, Haifa University, Israel
2006 – “Incognito” Exhibition, Haifa University, Israel
2005 – Exhibition for the Board of Trusties, Haifa University, Israel
2005 – “A man with no Shirt”, Performance & Video Art Exhibition, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2005 – “Another Tel-Aviv”, The Tel-Aviv-Jaffa Contemporary Art Center, Performance & Video Art Exhibition
2002 – Dream of Colors – Solo Exhibition, Mobile AL, USA
