Majdal Shams
Vanishing Point, Video (2010)
Last but certainly not least of the Young Palestinian Artists' project is Salama Safadi whose video Vanishing Point is being shown at the Swedish Christian Study Centre.
The video was taken surreptitiously on a mobile phone while moving through the turnstiles, checks and queues of Qalandia checkpoint. Given that tourists have sometimes been detained for taking photos of the checkpoints this was actually an extremely risky venture. As a consequence the video is imbued with the tension of potential discovery as well as the tension inherent in the oppressive architecture and experience of checkpoints.
Vanishing Point makes reference to a point where all lines meet and vanish into one point; the lines represent queues of people waiting to pass from Area A to Area B. This is the daily routine of Palestinians’ life, extraordinary though incomplete. Vanishing Point is a point where human and moral values disappear; it is a point where individual and collective privacy is violated by means of temporary domination over the place. (Text (abridged) from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue)
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