Yael Bartana was born in 1970 in Kfar Yehezkel, Israel. She currently lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Yael Bartana’s films, installations, sculptures, and photographs explore the imagery of identity and the politics of memory. Her starting point is the national consciousness propagated by her native country, Israel. Central to the work are meanings implied by terms like “homeland”, “return” and “belonging”. Bartana investigates these through ceremonies, public rituals and social diversions that are intended to reaffirm the collective identity of the nation state.

In her Israeli projects, Bartana dealt with the impact of war, military rituals and a sense of threat on every‑day life. Between 2006 and 2011, she worked in Poland, creating the trilogy And Europe Will Be Stunned, a project on the history of Polish-Jewish relations and its influence on the contemporary Polish identity. The trilogy represented Poland at the 54th International Art Exhibition in Venice (2011).

A number of solo exhibitions and video projections have been devoted to Bartana, including: Yael Bartana Retrospective, Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Sydney, (2022); Malka Germania, University Art Gallery @ UCI, Irvine, USA (2022); Yael Bartana, Redemption Now, Jewish Museum Berlin, Berlin (2021); Yael Bartana. Cast Off, Fondazione Modena Arte Visive, Modena (2019); And Europe Will Be Stunned, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2018); What if Women Ruled the World, Manchester International Festival, Manchester and Aarhus 2017 European Capital of Culture Aarhus (2017); Trembling Times, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2017); On Cohabitation, The Banff Centre, Alberta (2016); Wenn Ihr wollt, ist es kein Traum, Secession, Vienna (2012); ...and Europe will be stunned, Moderna Museet, Malmö (2010); Trembling Time, Kings of the Hill, PS1, New York (2008).

She has also taken part in several group exhibitions, among which: Witch Hunt, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Histories of Women / Feminist Histories, MASP / Casa de Povo, Sao Paulo (2019); Reality... is more absurd than any film, Marta Herford Museum, Herford (2019); The Street. Where the World is Made, MAXXI, Rome (2018); Freedom of Movement, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2018); Scenes from the Collection, Jewish Museum New York (2018); Place Relations, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo (2017); The Body Extended: Sculpture and Prosthetic, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2016); Summer guests, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisboa (2016); How to (...) things that don’t exist, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2015); La disparition des lucioles, La Collection Lambert, Avignon (2014); Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2013).

In 2005 she took part in the 9th Istanbul Biennial; in 2012 in the 7th Berlin Biennial; in 2014 in the 19th Biennale of Sydney and the 31st Sao Paolo Biennial. In 2011 she represented Poland in the 54th Venice Biennale.