Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune, born April 24, 1975 in Nice, is an artist working at the intersection of video, photography, performance, drawing, architecture and social action. In his work, Joseph Dadoune is interested in the tensions between East and West, between centralized power and periphery, and between real and imaginary. His works also resonates with issues related to colonialism, gender and identity.
Artistic career
After a childhood that takes him from Nice to Ofakim, Joseph Dadoune becomes known in the early 2000s for his film “Zion” (2006-2007), produced with the support and participation of the Louvre and actress Ronit Elkabetz.
In 2008, he develops a cycle of pieces entitled “In the Desert” which examines the economic, social and cultural reality of the development town Ofakim. For the project, Dadoune produces films, collects archival documents, initiates guided tours, invites journalists, and tries to harness as many people as possible to deliver Ofakim from its status as a “non-place”. Starting in 2010, he concentrates on drawing and creates monumental surfaces slathered in a black tar that he also adds to various objects and materials. Some of these tar pieces have been exhibited at Fondation Ricard in Paris and at Petach Tikva Museum of Art.
Amongst his other striking pieces are the noteworthy “Impossible calendars” (2013), exhibited at Tel Aviv Museum of Art for the 100th anniversary of Dada, and “Barrière protectrice” (2017), a series of autobiographical war drawings published as a book by Éditions Arnaud Bizalion.
In 2017, he is named a Knight of Arts and Letters by the French Minster of Culture, and in July that same year, his project “An Arab Spring” (233 photos and 17 videos) joins the collections of Centre Pompidou. In October 2017, he is the invited artist for the City of Versailles ‘Night of Creation’, where he presents an important selection of works under the title “Sillons”.
In 2018, he was the recipient of the Renée and Léonce Bernheim Foundation award and participated in the group show “To the End of Land” at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
In 2019, two of his tar pieces were selected for the exhibition “Naked Soul: Chaïm Soutine” at the Ein Harod Museum in Israel. In 2020, his book of drawings “Fresh Light”, with a text by Donatien Grau, was released through Éditions Arnaud Bizalion. In 2021, Galerie Le Minotaure and Galerie Alain Le Gaillard in Paris presented the exhibition “IncarnaSion”, on which occasion they published a catalog including a preface by Cahiers du cinéma film historian and critic, Ariel Schweitzer. In 2022, his work was featured on the poster for the 26th Truffle Market of Grasse. The Alliance Françaises in New Delhi and Calcutta present his drawings and videos alongside works by artist Léor Grady.
Upon invitation in June 2023 by the MAHJ in Paris for the exhibition “The Cry of Flowers” during the Nuit Blanche event, Joseph Dadoune’s works fill the museum’s contemporary gallery, the Duke’s room and the library. A 304-page monograph is released for the occasion by Arnaud Bizalion, Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune, 1996 - 2022, with texts by Marie-Laure Bernadac, Lucia Sagradini-Neumann, Doron Von Beider, Donatien Grau, Drorit Gur Arie, and graphic design by baldinger•vu-huu studios. And in September that year, he participated with the artist Léor Grady at the “Bihar Museum biennal” in Patna.
Joseph Dadoune has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions. His work has been shown notably at FIAC (Paris), Espace Richaud (Versailles)19, Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Plateau / FRAC Ile de France, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Fondation Ricard (Paris) and the Israel Museum (Jerusalem). His videos have been screened at Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, the auditorium of the Louvre, the White Box and Palais de Tokyo.
Joseph Dadoune’s pieces can be found in the collections of Centre Georges Pompidou, the Louvre Museum, FNAC in Paris, FRAC Normandy Rouen, the Zabludowicz Collection, the Israel Museum and Petach Tikva Museum of Art.