Maimon’s humorous and absurd work taps deep into the human narrative and its vessel; the human body, while looking for new perspectives and tools allowing, de-construction of patriarchal structures, self-reflection, stillness and catharsis.
The theme of bodily intelligence, the lack of intuition and connectedness in contemporary society to self, others, environment, and nature is at the core of Maimon’s artistic research, and mostly manifests in two types of work. Firstly, through performances, films, installations and drawings ––Maimon tells absurd, painful, or cathartic human stories that express this disconnection, often humorously. Her works explore unprocessed trauma within the body, while also creating tributes to the body. Secondly, as participatory works, including mini- institutions such as summer camps lasting several days, performative workshops, academic courses for art students, amateur performance ensembles and artist collectives––Maimon develops antidotes and methods for easing this disconnection through embodied relational practices that combine movement, voice, touch, and play with critical theory and self-reflection. Behind all of Maimon’s work is a desire to understand contemporary life and her own behavior in it as a “micro-mirror” of social and historical codes that can be deconstructed, challenged and resisted.
Dafna Maimon (FI/IL b.1982 Porvoo) is an artist based in Berlin, Germany. Her practice encompasses performance, video, drawing and immersive installation. Maimon has shown her work in institutions and art spaces such as, Helsinki Biennial (Helsinki), Kunst-Werke (Berlin), PS1 Moma (New York), Kiasma Museum, (Helsinki), Kim Center Contemporary Art, (Riga), 1646 (Den Haag), SPACE Gallery, (Portland Maine), Gallery Wedding (Berlin), Mahj Jewish Museum (Paris) and The 25th Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and Satire (Gabrovo Bulgaria). Maimon holds a BFA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and an MFA from the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam. She has been an artist resident at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, IASPIS Stockholm, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council NYC, and Künstlerhaus Bethanien.
Leaky Teeth
HD Video / 31:08 min / 2021
09:59 min excerpt
“Leaky Teeth” centers around an up-tight and alienated fictional character named June and a cavity in her wisdom tooth that is home to a group of cuddly, prehistoric humans. From researching paleolithic cave art, and the likely fluid relationship between these early artists and their environments, an experimental storyline rethinking our relationship to physical pain, was set inside the main character’s wisdom tooth; an ancient decaying, organic cave found within her mouth. In stark contrast to the cave, June’s life is set in a luxurious, yet leaking modernist villa, the Maison Louis Carre, designed by the architect Alvar Aalto. June’s simultaneously leaking tooth and home suggest a worldview where everything, including our bodies, is porous and interconnected; we are made and remade in, and through, our relationship to the material world. There are holes everywhere; time, space and bodies leak into and sponge off one another. We are thoroughly entangled – whether we like it or not.