Vardit Goldner
Swimming Lesson
Isreal | 2021 | Colour | 05’07”
Hebrew, Arabic and English Subtitles
A video installation and a mockumentary video in which I teach Bedouin girls to swim in a waterless “pool”. It aims to stimulate thought about the lack of swimming pools accessible to Bedouins in Israel, actually denying them swimming lessons and causing frequent cases of drowning in the sea.
There are over 200,000 Arab-Bedouins living in the Negev region of Israel today, with access to one single swimming pool that was inaugurated in the Bedouin town of Rahat in 2017. Bedouins are not allowed to enter swimming pools in Jewish localities.
In addition, the work deals with the lack of swimming pools due to discrimination, but in a future world, in a few years or a little more, there may be a shortage of water due to global warming, drought and evaporation as well.
Artist Bio
Vardit Goldner is a multifaceted artist specializing in photography and videography. Her artistic pursuits primarily focus on capturing the nuances of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shedding light on the everyday lives of Palestinians. Additionally, she delves into social, environmental, and animal-related concerns through her work.
She studied at the Faculty of Arts – Hamidrasha at Beit Berl College, Israel, where she completed the Postgraduate Fine Arts Program, and she holds an M.Sc. in physics. Her work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals such as Earth Rising at IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and she was selected as one of the laureates of Talents Contemporains of Fondation François Schneider, France.