Assaf Gruber
Assaf Gruber was born in 1980 in Jerusalem and is based in Berlin. He works with sculpture and film, focusing on the relationship between individuals and institutions and the ways in which they shape and communicate narratives. He studied at the Cooper Union, New York, the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and HISK, Ghent. Solo exhibitions include the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2018), and Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź (2015). His films have been presented at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2023) and FID Marseille (2022). In 2022/23 he was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme.
MIRACULOUS ACCIDENT
2024–2025
double video installation 60′ (30′ each part)
Part 1 (Nadir) – commissioned by steirischer herbst ’24, produced by steirischer herbst ’24, CASKFILMS and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).
Part 2 (Edyta) – commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Visual Culture Research Center, and RIBBON International for the Kyiv Biennial 2025. Co-produced by CASKFILMS and TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol.
Artistic research for both projects commissioned by the Berlin Artistic Research Programme 2022–2023.
Excerpts from student films (Łódź Film School, 1966–1983) are woven into the work, including:
A Lesson 41, Abdellah Dirssi, 1966
Amghar, Mostafa Derkaoui, 1968
Shadow Among Others, Abdelkader Lagtaâ, 1969
Report September, Rupen Vosgimorukian, 1969
Elizabeth, Idriss Karim, 1973
But Hope Is of a Different Color, Abdelkader Lagtaâ, 1972
Wait, Wait, Beverly Joan Marcus, 1978 & 1980
Patrik, Beverly Joan Marcus, 1980
Dear Dad, Laredj Khader, 1983
Cast:
Abdelkader Lagtaâ: Nadir
Marta Ojrzyńska: Edyta
Mateusz Górski: Jarek
Dagmara Bąk: Archivist
Marcin Czarnik: Man I
Grzegorz Falkowski: Man II
Crew:
Writer & Director: Assaf Gruber
Producer: Guillaume Cailleau
Cinematography: Simon Veroneg
Delegate Producers: Aleksander Bilnik (tak mi źle films), Agata Terpiał (Cinescop)
Assistant Director: Moriya Matityahu
Scenography: Maja Pawlikowska
Location Manager: Janusz Dąbkiewicz
Sound recording: Maryla Kłosowska & Anna Lenarcik
Sound design: Jochen Jezussek
Miraculous Accident is a double video installation unfolding between 1968 and 2025. At the Łódź Film School, Edyta, a Jewish editing teacher exiled during Poland's political purges, forms a charged bond with Nadir, her Moroccan student. Years later, a letter Edyta sent from Haifa resurfaces. In response, Nadir returns to Łódź to direct a film imagining her life. Combining archival student films from the Łódź Film School with scripted scenes, the work moves between memory and invention, tracing how love and ideology shape each other—and how cinema can become both evidence and haunting.