Born in 1966 in Jerusalem, Michael Blum is an artist who employs an array of mediums encompassing photography, video, books, installations, objects, text, and printed matter. He pursued history studies at Paris University, delved into photography at Ecole Nationale de la Photographie in Arles, France, and further honed his craft during a two-year stint at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Blum’s artistic endeavors critically reexamine cultural and historical production. His creations have graced prominent venues such as Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris, the New Museum in New York, Transmediale in Berlin, Kunsthalle Vienna, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Baltic, Istanbul, Torino, and Tirana Biennials. At the 9th Istanbul Biennial in 2005, Blum unveiled “A Tribute to Safiye Behar,” a museum dedicated to the controversial lover of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, evoking both intrigue and scrutiny. In 2006, he embarked on another historical exploration with “Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co” at De Appel in Amsterdam. This endeavor delved into the Jewish bank established from 1859 to 1968, once housed within the De Appel art center building, which played a central role in the Nazi looting machinery during WWII and the Netherlands’ occupation. Blum’s “Cape Town – Stockholm (On Thembo Mjobo)” in 2007—both a book and radio piece—unearthed the forgotten Swedish support for Southern Africa’s liberation movements from the 1960s to the 1990s. In 2008, his work “Exodus 2048,” showcased at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and the New Museum in New York, envisioned a staged camp for Israeli refugees after their purported expulsion in 2048.
