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Political Mutants is a video installation that draws inspiration from the comic-book world and uses a B-movie and sci-fi aesthetic language. In comics and sci-fi literature, a mutant is a human that received a particular power or physical characteristic due to a mutation. A superpower or an eccentric appearance transforms this person into a super-human. 

 

Meir Tait's new video work depicts a series of mutants whose faces are areagmented, diverse political leaders, such as fr Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Putin, Arduan and many more. The superpower these politicians obtain is the power given to them by the citizens, and this is how they become "super-humans". The mutants in the video address the audience with a series of re-edited monologues, taken from various comic-book-based movies, especially from a specific moment when the antagonist (the villain who fights the hero) explains his motives for world destruction – the world that the heroes are bound to protect. The antagonist's agenda usually summarises values that Hollywood (or America) is against. Subsequently, while reviewing the history of these films, it is possible to detect the change like the villains in accordance to the nature of the state's enemies at the time, for instance, Russians, Arabs, Chinese and more, alongside the manifestations of their ideologies, such as Socialism, Communism, financial and moral corruption, hyper-Capitalism and failing corporate culture. Through the monologues of the mutants – a mixture of the words spoken by the hero/leader and the antagonist – questions regarding the agendas of each side arise: what is it that the hero/leader is trying to protect? What is this "democracy"? What is the "west"? And cetra.

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Installation view at Beit Uri and Rami Nehoshtan Museum, Israel,(photography by Yotam From).

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The political mutant at the centre of the work will try to reach the viewers by connecting them to their collective fears. The act of construction and deconstruction of the texts from the movies sheds new lighttical ideologies can find their way into the minds of the viewers, the audience, the citizens, and the on the way polipeople. This work continues Meir Tati's artistic practice, drawing inspiration from current political affairs while referencing pop culture and the world of sci-fi and comic books, mixing documentary and fiction by creating complex installations that ask questions regarding our perception of reality and history.

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Text by: Smadar Keren (Curator at  Beit Uri and Rami Nehoshtan Museum)

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