Guy Ben-Ner, is an internationally renowned Isreali artist living and working in Tel Aviv and visiting New York to launch his latest video: Don’t Drop the Monkey, commissioned by Performa 2009. In this conversation with Leeza Ahmady, we hear about the artist’s process of making videos, the intentions in his work, and his thoughts on how art and personal life mutually affect each other. Ben-Ner shares details about the making of the video--which he admits he titled with no real reference in the piece--in which the artist holds a telephone conversation with himself over a period of twelve months as he flies between Tel Aviv and Berlin. Ben-Ner’s storyboard is life itself, the film is completely live and unedited, and each scene occurs in real time although with significant lapses in between. Shot in Hebrew, and dubbed in English, the film presents a conversation in rhyme, which discusses how art can be at the service of life and the repercussions of such a unified relationship. Mixing sophisticated cinematic devices and crafty, do-it-yourself elements, Ben-Ner’s videos brim with witty cross-references to specific episodes and genres within the histories of cinema, video, and performance (31 minutes).

Ben-Ner’s Don’t Drop the Monkey is on view at the PERFORMA Hub at 41 Cooper Square in New York City through November 22, 2009