Director's Talk - Conversation with Ruth Patir

James S. Snyder in Conversation with Ruth Patir

In the aftermath of October 7, 2023, and all that followed, the Jewish Museum introduced a new series of talks featuring James S. Snyder, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, in conversation with artists, authors, and other cultural leaders and thinkers exploring the role and relevance of art and culture during challenging times. Given the profoundly complex moment we are all experiencing today, these talks offer a forum for dialogue and discourse for public audiences of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, all of whom nonetheless embrace the Jewish Museum setting as a venue for education and engagement.

James S. Snyder speaks with Ruth Patir, the artist representing Israel in this year's Venice Biennale, about her experience preparing for—and then postponing the opening of—her site-specific installation for the Israel Pavilion. They will also discuss Patir’s experience at the Venice Biennale within the larger context of her artistic practice, which merges computer-generated imagery with documentary formats that provide new pathways for interpreting reality in today’s socially and politically complex times.

About the Speakers: 

James S. Snyder began his tenure as the Jewish Museum’s Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director in November 2023, after serving since 2019 as Executive Chair of The Jerusalem Foundation, Inc. He is also Director Emeritus of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, where he served as the Anne and Jerome Fisher Director from 1997 through 2016 and then as International President through 2018.  He is also a Senior Fellow of the Middle East Initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School. During his tenure as Director of the Israel Museum, Snyder led the Museum through the most dramatic period of growth since its founding and secured its stature as one of the world’s foremost museums. Prior to his appointment at the Israel Museum, Snyder held a number of positions at The Museum of Modern Art culminating as Deputy Director from 1986 to 1996.

Ruth Patir’s works often begin with the artist’s autobiography and gradually open up to address larger societal issues, such as the politics of gender, technology, and the hidden mechanisms of power. Patir received her BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (2011) and her MFA in New Genres from Columbia University in New York (2015). Her recent solo show, titled My Father in the Cloud (2022), was presented at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv. In this project, the artist confronts her personal relationship with technology through the grief over her father’s passing. Her film, Sleepers (2017), before winning the Video and Experimental Cinema and Video Art Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, was shown at Danspace Project in New York. Patir's work has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Petach Tikva Museum of Art, the Anthology Film Archive in New York, the Flux Factory in New York, and more. Her work is in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, among others.

Location: Scheuer Auditorium

Tickets: $18 General; $15 Students and Seniors; $12 Jewish Museum members

Doors open at 6 pm; Includes Museum Admission

The Morris W. Offit Lecture Series at the Jewish Museum is made possible in part by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.