Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune, born April 24, 1975 in Nice, is a European 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 religious and secular life, between centralized power and periphery, as well as between real and imaginary. His works also resonates with issues related to colonialism, and identity.
After a childhood that takes him from Nice to Ofakim, Joseph Dadoune becomes known in the early 2000s in France and in the Negev desert 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 receives the Renée and Léonce Bernheim Foundation Prize and participates in the exhibition “To the End of Land” at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. In 2019, two of his tar pieces are selected for the “Naked Soul: Chaïm Soutine” exhibition at the Ein Harod Museum in Israel. In 2020, he publishes a book of drawings “Fresh Light” accompanied by the text by Donatien Grau, published by Arnaud Bizalion. In 2021, Galerie Le Minotaure and Galerie Alain le Gaillard in Paris present the exhibition “IncarnaSion”. This catalog is published on this occasion.
Joseph Dadoune has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions. His work has been shown notably at FIAC (Paris), Espace Richaud (Versailles), 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, FNAC in Paris, FRAC Normandy-Rouen, the Israel Museum and Petach Tikva Museum of Art.
