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Yael Bartana, an Israeli video artist, was born in 1970 in Kfar Yehezkel, Israel.
Bartana studied photography in Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem ( 1992-96), and continued her studies in New York, in the School of Visual Arts (1996-99). She then moved to Amsterdam, where she attended the Rijks Academy (1999-2001).
Her work often concerns themes of Israeli life while criticizing it for its military aspect, as well as subjects relating to Europe's Jewish past.
In her early works Bartana used documentation from ceremonies, real and staged, within Israeli society. In her work "Trembling Time" (2001), for example, she documented the Ayalon Highway during the time of the siren that sounds every year on the eve of Memorial Day for fallen Israeli soldiers. In her work "Wild Seeds" (2005) she documented a group of youths playing the roles of settlers and of the police evacuating an outpost.
From 2007 to 2011, Bartana created her "Polish Trilogy" or "…And Europe Will be Stunned", a trilogy of films which presents an ironic and utopian call for a new Israeli settlement in Poland under the name "The Movement for Jewish Renewal in Poland." The three films use cinematic techniques associated with Fascist esthetics. This work represented Poland in the Art Biennale in Venice in 2011.
Yael Bartana lives and works in Berlin, Amsterdam and Israel.

Education

1992-96 Photography, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1996-99 MFA, School of Visual Arts, New York
1999-2001 Rijks Academy, Amsterdam

Awards and Prizes

1965 Devorah Davidson Prize, Hakibbutz Haartzi
1972 Siva and Yizchak ben Menachem Scholarship
1980 Honorable Mention, Israel Print Competition
1983 Honorable Mention, Graphics Triennale, Haifa.