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Koriat, Asaf
Born 1980, IsraelLives in Tel Aviv, Israel
The Brave is a one-channel, split-screen video simultaneously playing recordings of nine different celebrities singing the “Star Spangled Banner” at the opening celebration of the Super Bowl. Each performer attempts to make the anthem his or her own and to establish a claim to it in competition with his or her predecessors. In the temporal unity of the video, they melt into one uncanny disharmonious chant.
This discordant national anthem provides both a concise critique and a celebration of mass culture: the singers embody the complexities of the democratic system, simultaneously touting the mythology of a collective national identity and the ceaseless insistence on individuality that are the bedrock of the American dream. The video’s presentation, via a large TV entertainment center, highlights the function of media events as the primary form through which the nation exists and perceives itself in unity.
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