Niv Fridman is a BFA graduate from Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem and an MA from The Royal College of Art in London. Showed his works at the Tate Modern in London, The Jewish Museum in Munich, The Hecht Museum in Haifa, and The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and presented his video works at the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, and the Beer Sheva Short Film Festival. He is the winner of multiple academic excellence awards, photography and music video competitions and the ARTiq scholarship. In his works, Fridman explores the lives of various figures from history such as a zoologist, an ancient poet, or an art collector. Fridman’s artistic practice combines meticulous historical research with the artistic freedom to weave imaginary stories and to plant/reveal gay and queer motifs hidden beneath the surface. In the works, there is a reference to the concept of disguise, as Fridman himself embodies the historical figures that he so carefully researched as well as creates their details at every stage of the process, from sewing the costumes to writing the texts, editing and post-production. Fridman’s action of disguise sheds new light on archival documents and raises questions about the heterosexual point of view and the manner in which it shapes history. His works challenge the accepted differentiations between truth and fiction, past and present, reality and imagination.
In The Press