TEL AVIV.- The exhibition Absalon: Solutions and Problems presents three video works created by Absalon in the final two years of his life (1992–93)—Solutions, Noises, and Battle. Each shows Absalon himself engaged in actions of varying intensity, in which the body becomes an arena of battle, a scream, or a problem to be solved.

Absalon (born Meir Eshel) died in Paris in 1993 of AIDS, only 29 years old, leaving behind a limited yet highly influential oeuvre. In the last year of his life he created the body of work with which he is most closely identified, centered on six prototypes of habitable cells—white-painted wooden structures, simply designed in accordance with the dimensions of his body and his basic needs: "All the houses are made with this desire to impose physical constraints which will mean that this house will be very real to me." He planned to install these cells in major cities around the world (Paris, Zurich, New York, Tel Aviv, Frankfurt, and possibly Tokyo) and to live in them. Seeking to withdraw from the social, economic, and political order, he nevertheless framed his withdrawal as an explicitly public, oppositional act, staged at the very heart of these cities. Set against the power centers of the economy of excess, his minimalist cells excluded all unnecessary detail, and limited occupancy to a single person—the artist himself. Only at his discretion could another person be admitted for a time-limited visit, in a carefully calibrated intimacy, in which, according to his meticulous calculations, no more than 40 centimeters would separate the artist from the guest.

Because of his premature death, Absalon never inhabited the cells. Only two were realized in his lifetime, while the others remained prototypes, constructed and disassembled for exhibitions of his work worldwide. The cells are negative spaces, like monuments to an absent body, testifying to the constraints imposed upon and derived from the body itself. Whereas the cells were built to human scale, Absalon's video works were usually shown on monitors, and often assumed a secondary role. In the present exhibition, however, the videos take center stage, projected and enlarged to approximate human dimensions, even at the expense of image sharpness. Absalon's body confronts the viewer head on, sharing space and time with him/her. CCA's architecture, with its all-white exhibition space, can be seen as echoing Absalon's cells in any event.

In Solutions (7:34 min), Absalon utilizes the various functions he built into his cells—a stool, table, bed, room, and bath. The scenes unfold sequentially, like glimpses into a day in the artist's life, whereas in the current exhibition they are presented side by side and enlarged to human scale, forming an index of intimate actions performed before the camera—and, by extension, before the viewer. Absalon pours himself a glass of water and drinks it in a single gulp; he takes a square of chocolate from its foil wrapper and eats; he lights a cigarette with a match and smokes, his fidgety foot betraying nervousness; he bites his nails, removes his shoes, climbs on a stool to reach the high single bed raised above storage cabinets, and lies down on the thin mattress without a blanket. He masturbates beside the table, paces restlessly around it, bangs his head against the wall, possibly in prayer. He once again sits down at the table, rubs his balding head as though hastening a process already underway, brushes fallen hairs from the tabletop, undresses, and enters the bathtub filled with water, where nothing needs to be concealed.

In contrast to Solutions, in which Absalon passes time, or simply lives—filling time with everyday activities, seemingly devoid of urgency—in Battle (0:45 min) and Noises (2:30 min) he is absorbed in two intense physical actions: in Battle he relentlessly punches the space with bare fists, as though fighting multiple figures, or none at all, as if his life depended on it: "From this desire to live in the houses, which is the same desire that urges me not to become what society wants me to become, not to give in, I am making this film, of which I never tire. l am going to fight with all my strength and as far as the houses are concerned, I mean, I think that even if it's horrific, I will live that experience, even if it's horrific, just because of this desire not to give in, to fight, not to accept, to live my life as I understand it, or not, that's all." In Noises, by contrast, he performs an almost formalistic action, screaming continuously until his voice is exhausted. It is not the scream, or the need to scream, that ends, but the means itself that is depleted. While the struggle continues, the scream is spent.

Installed in CCA's entrance, the video Proposals for a Habitat (1991) corresponds with the infomercials broadcast on television at the time, which demonstrated how to use the products they promoted. In the video, an actor demonstrates the use of Absalon’s sculptural ensemble (presented under the title Proposals for a Habitat), effectively showing how to use what is, in fact, non-functional. Both ironic and ideal, this gesture binds the abstract and the utopian with the consumerist and the commercial, as art transpires as a form of life.

Absalon: Solutions and Problems is curated by Hila Cohen-Schneiderman.