tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89840870817483552492024-03-14T01:11:25.933+02:00Al-Ma'mal RetrospectiveWriter-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-16471257920721372762010-11-27T19:05:00.000+02:002010-11-27T19:05:26.230+02:00Better late than never...Rigo 23 finished the Al Ma'mal mural about an hour or so before he had to leave for the airport and I left the following day so never got a chance to take pictures of the final work. However, I now have a few images of how it all looked in the end so better late than never here is <em>Back and Forth from Ramallah to Jerusalem</em>.. <br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TPEw2QGtLPI/AAAAAAAABhs/WD6_T9kvudQ/s1600/Jerusalem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" ox="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TPEw2QGtLPI/AAAAAAAABhs/WD6_T9kvudQ/s320/Jerusalem.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TPEw5l7cFGI/AAAAAAAABh4/hmuLBDclq94/s1600/With+Rima.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" ox="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TPEw5l7cFGI/AAAAAAAABh4/hmuLBDclq94/s320/With+Rima.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-70344367976517600512010-10-12T11:35:00.002+02:002010-10-13T19:09:52.857+02:00And Finally..<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQptxaiA_I/AAAAAAAABhk/xVJiamQc8Qk/s1600/sponsors.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="296" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQptxaiA_I/AAAAAAAABhk/xVJiamQc8Qk/s400/sponsors.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: white;">THANK</span> </span><span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: red;">YOU</span> </span></strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="color: red;"><span style="color: #38761d;">VERY</span> </span>MUCH</strong></span><br />
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</div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-62637602745678248982010-10-12T11:13:00.000+02:002010-10-12T11:13:53.430+02:00Artists at Al Ma'mal II - Issa FreijIssa Freij has always been a part of Anadiel and Al Ma’mal’s story. He has filmed and photographed exhibitions, people and events prolifically and continues to do so. In this Jerusalem Show he videoed most of the performances and also interviewed some of the artists and community centres. His photograph and video archive is probably so huge by now that it would take several years to get an idea of what it contains. It is not just a record of events but a consistent and ongoing record of the people, the places and the culture. <br />
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One of his projects in Al Ma'mal is a sequence of images taken during the last 30 years which have been re-arranged to create a new timeline. Moving from left to right, the timeline is reversed, and yet still seems just as familiar and logical in its new arrangement. <br />
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His other work at Al Ma’mal also merges the past and the present but all within a single scene he captured at a demonstration in Jerusalem. This complex image has three layers:<br />
<blockquote>One layer depicts or represents the marching populace, angry, frustrated, tired yet resilient. The second layer depicts Jerusalem’s iconic monument, the Dome of the Rock, printed on a stretched banner carried by the marching crowd, and right across it a screaming slogan in the colour of the Hizbullah flag imploring Arabs for help - quite painful don't you agree? The third layer is a number of smaller images adorning the bottom of the banner carried by the crowd and resembling medals of honour for "typical" calamities that have plagued and burdened our sorry history (Mohammad al Durra and other martyrs). All of this is portrayed against a very normal background of a cloudy day, an evergreen and a Marlboro sign, which is telling us in a way: c'est la vie and too bad you happen to be who you are, on the wrong side of the fence so to speak. And the picture with all its elements represents life, a mirror of our culture and people, and a tool of expression that rises above all prejudices, pedantry and parochialism. (Text from Jerusalem Show Catalogue)</blockquote><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">It seems appropriate to end on this image because it was the original choice for this year's Jerusalem Show poster. Concerns about the risks of it being perceived as too provocative, eventually gave way to another poster design but not before an intense email exchange among the Al Ma'mal board. The final poster for the Jerusalem Show ingeniously referenced the original choice by using cut-up extracts of text from these email exchanges.</div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-42500996110415889292010-10-12T10:39:00.000+02:002010-10-12T10:39:39.528+02:00Artists and work at Al Ma'mal IAl Ma'mal is the place it all began so it seems only right that the documentation of work in this year's Jerusalem Show should end at Al Ma'mal as well. Six artists are showing in the Al Ma'mal space. The story of one of these, Anonymous II, was told in the previous post. Four of the others are: <br />
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<strong>Khaled Jarrar</strong><br />
Khaled Jarrar is showing the sister work to his video at the Spafford Children’s Centre, I Soldier. This is a series of four acrylic panels painted in the spectrum of colours most strongly associated with the life of a soldier. In this painting series, also called I, Soldier, Jarrar takes the four colours usually mixed for camouflage uniforms and separates then into individual panels. This act conceptually links the paintings to the video, in which the soldiers were also recognisable as individuals through their quirks of choreography.<br />
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<strong>Jamal Jamaliev</strong><br />
A series of photographs by Jamal Jamaliev called Line of Fire (2010) are a strange and sometimes blurred document of observations from his research and experiences as a journalist. Born in 1952, he comprehensively researched the Crimean war which was the first war to be extensively documented in photographs. Over the past 10 years his research has focused on the war in Afghanistan and its repercussions on the Middle East. <br />
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<strong><a href="http://www.asadazi.com/">Asad Azi</a></strong><br />
Asad Azi’s series of five works in Al Ma’mal called The Rider fit starkly with the theme for this Jerusalem Show. All are representations of a naked rider slumped over a donkey and each emits an atmosphere of complete exhaustive breakdown. The Rider seems no longer capable of any autonomous action. Asad Azi describes his figure as: <br />
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<blockquote>.. the awaited redeemer coming or returning to us, old, weary, burdened with our sins and our moans. Suddenly, he and we discover that he has been put in a dilemma that he cannot face. He is no more than a redeemer by accident, a redeemer by chance. He does not know who should be redeemed and who should be damned. He has been entirely confused by the constant change in the nature of people. More than anyone of us, the redeemer needs someone to redeem him. </blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQZU3-R9uI/AAAAAAAABhA/i88Jius3nwg/s1600/aa1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQZU3-R9uI/AAAAAAAABhA/i88Jius3nwg/s320/aa1.JPG" width="260" /></a></div><br />
<strong><a href="http://raedasaadeh.com/">Raeda Sadeh</a></strong><br />
Raeda Sadeh’s juxtaposition of a woman engaged in the perfectly normal act of knitting but with a hugely over sized ball of wool is surreal enough in itself. The fact that this activity is occurring while she sits amidst the rubble of her demolished house allows for several other levels of interpretation. This attempted act of normalcy amidst such chaos highlights the insanity the context and perhaps finally and inevitably that of the exhausted protagonist.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQaBf-F9hI/AAAAAAAABhU/SXFgOr5Pfdc/s1600/rs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="211" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLQaBf-F9hI/AAAAAAAABhU/SXFgOr5Pfdc/s320/rs.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-60340618128264724452010-10-12T09:53:00.000+02:002010-10-12T09:53:16.413+02:00Sublimity and AnonymityAs well as five of the <a href="http://almamal.blogspot.com/2010/10/young-palestinian-artists-part-i-al.html">Young Palestinian Artists</a> covered earlier in this blog, <a href="http://www.alhoashgallery.org/aboutus.shtml">Al Hoash</a> also showed another video work by<a href="http://taysir.batniji.org/art/index.php"> Taysir Batniji</a> and photography by Martin Leiboda.<br />
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Taysir Batniji video <em>Transit </em>presents a silent slideshow of photographic images made clandestinely at border crossings between Egypt and Gaza in 2003-2004. The photographs of people waiting are alternated with black screens used as metaphors for emptiness, the passing of time, restricted mobility and discontinuity. The video addresses notions of borders, travel and displacement as well as the situation of being between two cultures and identities.<br />
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Martin Leiboda's artistic interest has taken him to Afghanistan, India, the UAE, Africa and Palestine, which he has visited several times. His photographic series are neither reportage nor conceptional documentary, but are often directed at situations that in themselves seem indecipherable. <br />
<blockquote>They are visible to the naked eye and yet elude or resist a deeper meaning. I believe that my images, arranged next to each other, have an accumulative effect and thus reveal their own grammar necessary to be legible. The image of the coffee shop in Ramallah is one such word in a long sentence that conveys my experience of this city. (Text from Jerusalem Show Catalogue)</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLLd2tPwvQI/AAAAAAAABgs/NNl_SofLay0/s1600/martin+leiboda.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="319" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLLd2tPwvQI/AAAAAAAABgs/NNl_SofLay0/s320/martin+leiboda.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
As well as exhibiting at Al Hoash, Martin Leiboda also contributed to <a href="http://almamal.blogspot.com/2010/10/youmna-chlala-and-jeanno-gaussi_09.html">Youmna Chlala and Jeanno Gaussi’s</a> <em>Home Sweet Home</em> project. The photographs in their book of the undisturbed interior of the Jerusalem apartment in which their project was activated, were taken by Leiboda. <br />
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There were also two artists in the show this year that chose to remain anonymous rather than risk being associated with an exhibition in “Israel”. The work of one of these was a video called <em>Direct Negotiations</em> (2007), which was projected onto the wall opposite Anadiel Gallery. This ironic work showed a cat seemingly trapped behind glass scratching futilely against the surface, stopping to rest and then repeating the futile scratching again.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLLe6z_mFSI/AAAAAAAABg0/QazCkFGdsBI/s1600/anon2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLLe6z_mFSI/AAAAAAAABg0/QazCkFGdsBI/s320/anon2.JPG" width="189" /></a></div><br />
The other anonymous artist was showing at Al Ma’mal itself and was allegedly part of a collaborative curatorial intervention by curator and writer F. Zahir Mibineh who invited Anonymous to present a recent video work. The video is allegedly a four-hour long, low-resolution documentation of the artist masturbating to something only he can see on his laptop while also intermittently appearing to nasally ingest a white powder. This video piece was an instrument to examine issues related to obsession, emptiness, stamina, insatiability, unfulfilled desire and the overwhelmed gaze, with a critical text accompanying the piece that attempted to shed light on these themes.<br />
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However, the video never arrived, the artist never arrived, the curator never arrived. In its place were the text, transcripts, biographies and summaries with a blank projection onto the gallery wall and re-titled Staring at the Sea. The video had been confiscated and the anonymous artist (briefly) arrested and accused of trafficking in illicit material. Allegedly.Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-24738685476844730362010-10-10T00:10:00.010+02:002010-10-12T10:08:34.189+02:00Michael Rakowitz - The BreakupChicago based artist <a href="http://michaelrakowitz.com/">Michael Rakowitz</a> first came into contact with Jack Persekian at the 8th Sharjah Biennial in 2007 and was actually invited to participate in the 2009 Jerusalem Show but couldn't make it. This year, however, he brought a multifaceted and meticulously designed project called <em>The Breakup.</em><br />
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<blockquote>Mindful of the exhibition’s goal to serve as a metaphor for approaching the many facets of a contested city divided by occupation and segregation, “The Breakup” considers the intricacies of The Beatles’ 1969 breakup as an example of a collaborative cultural phenomena that over time stops functioning and reaches a point where negotiation fails as a tactic and communication is halted. How does this happen? What can be learned?<br />
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The central part of the multi-event public project is a ten-part radio program that will air on Ramallah-based <a href="http://www.listenarabic.com/Amwaj+FM+radio88.php">Radio Amwaj</a> (92.3 FM). Here The Beatles’ breakup will be dissected from the more than 100 hours of tapes generated during the filming of "Let It Be" to gain insight into the moment when enlightenment gave way to collapse, and to understand the feelings of isolation and alienation sustained at the time by both Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The project will culminate with a recreation of The Beatles’ final rooftop concert—but on a roof in Jerusalem in 2010 instead of London in 1969, with some of the new and former members of local Arabic music ensemble, Sabreen. An LP and a CD of the concert will be released in Palestine; the list of songs, on the album cover, will function as poetry, a demand for something that does not function to be fixed, for a dream denied to finally be realized:<br />
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Two of Us<br />
The Long and Winding Road<br />
Don’t Let Me Down<br />
Get Back<br />
Let It Be</blockquote><br />
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The ten radio broadcasts were recorded in Chicago. <a href="http://michaelrakowitz.com/">Michael Rakowitz</a> provided the central narrative thread and interspersed this with excerpts from the <em>Let it Be</em> tapes, and often unusual Beatles archive performances. <br />
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The recreation of the Beatles final rooftop concert was performed on the roof of the Swedish Christian Study Centre near Jaffa Gate with six local musicians who are part of, or connected to, the band Sabreen or to the <a href="http://www.sabreen.org/">Sabreen Organisation</a> which now runs community music education programmes. Special guest musician for this event was Uriel Barthélémi on drums but the array of classical eastern and modern western instruments resulted in a truly unique reinterpretation of the five Beatles songs listed above. Although following the basic form of each track, Sabreen introduced extended improvisational sections as well as dedicated solo sequences that allowed each instrument to be heard in its own right. These included oud, qanoon, flute and several tablas in addition to the lead and bass guitars. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLGNe7EyUfI/AAAAAAAABgc/F7HnWABgT5o/s1600/Michael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="234" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLGNe7EyUfI/AAAAAAAABgc/F7HnWABgT5o/s320/Michael.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
It is hoped that a further stage of the project will be based on the internet phenomenon of the Beatles ‘Fantasy Last Album’ in which people from all over the world have made fantasy artwork for this imagined work that never appeared because of the break up. In one case in Japan this was extended beyond the album to include detailed and entirely plausible documentation of imagined correspondence with producers and others who could have been involved. <br />
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In the context of the whole project, the idea is that this element can be transposed, and then juxtaposed, with a similar imagining of ‘Palestine’ in terms of design for currency and other symbols of statehood. The entire project would then be assembled as an audio visual installation.Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-31746495950692259962010-10-09T15:59:00.000+02:002010-10-09T15:59:33.317+02:00Uriel Barthélémi - Exhaustion Triptych<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLBywOGMyHI/AAAAAAAABfA/WJ0YeA3x7Yk/s1600/FCC2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLBywOGMyHI/AAAAAAAABfA/WJ0YeA3x7Yk/s320/FCC2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Three artists participating in the Jerusalem Show emerged from discussions on the concept of Exhaustion between Jack Persekian and <a href="http://www.myspace.com/tarekatoui">Tarek Atoui</a> who made three suggestions: <a href="http://www.vlatkahorvat.com/">Vlatka Horvat</a>, Rigo 23 and Uriel Barthélémi. <br />
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<a href="http://www.myspace.com/urielbarthelemi">Uriel Barthélémi</a> is a composer, drummer and electro-acoustic musician who creates compelling physical and psychological dramas through the intense production of sound. Combining drums and electronics, composition and improvisation, his work captures the very essence of live performance. <br />
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The original proposition for the Jerusalem Show was that Barthélémi play in the street in Jerusalem for 6 hours continuously, but this was modified to take the form of three separate performances over several days. The first performance took place at the French Cultural Centre on October 4th and the second at Al Ma’mal on October 6th. The final part of the Triptych will be performed tonight (October 9th) on the roof of the PADICO building in the Old City.<br />
<blockquote>Jack asked me and explained the Jerusalem Show and I said OK because making a performance like this sounded like something I would really like to do. I changed the proposition a little because six hours is a lot and I didn’t want to just make something that focused only on the physical aspects of exhaustion. I chose the form of a triptych. I took this form because it is something that is used in religious art so I wanted to hijack the form because of the association with religious aspects of Jerusalem. </blockquote><blockquote>I use a language that exists in normal music but it’s more extreme or more radical. However there is always a continuum. Technically I use basic Max/MSP software which allows me to programme my own applications so I can develop special effects for the drums. The sequence works as if you are flicking a remote control. However, the first part of the triptych was more like a concert because it was not completely random. I had pre-programmed Part I. In the second performance I wanted to gradually discard the tools so that I had less and less tools to express myself with. The third and final part of the triptych will really be complete improvisation. I will have no other forms to help. It will be free drumming for as long as I can play.</blockquote><br />
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</div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-45062087064460492732010-10-09T14:57:00.000+02:002010-10-09T17:41:44.910+02:00Youmna Chlala and Jeanno Gaussi<strong><a href="http://youmnachlala.com/desktop/">Youmna Chlala</a> and <a href="http://www.jeanno.de/">Jeanno Gaussi</a></strong><br />
<em>Via Khan el Zeit: Home Sweet Home – Jerusalem</em> <br />
Artist book, video & installation.(2010)<br />
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<em>Home Sweet Home, Jerusalem</em> is a publication, video & installation project that investigates the exhaustive qualities of continually moving between the real and the imagined. By activating a home-space, we interrogate the relationships of self/object/ space and respond to a ritual of location that is rooted in the belief that home remains both a search and a dream. (Text from Jerusalem Show Catalogue)<br />
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<blockquote>We were invited by ArteEast to the March Meeting in Sharjah in 2010 and we presented our project there. We had already done the project in Jordan so we had a very clear idea in mind. We wanted to find the next location and to find people who were interested in this project and would like to work with us. We met Jack and Jumana and they invited us to come to Jerusalem so we came here for a month from mid July – mid August 2010. <br />
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<em>Home Sweet Home</em> looks at the rituals associated with location: first imagining the location, then moving to / staying in that location, then leaving and finally re-imagining the location after you have left it. The project has several components that differ slightly from location to location but include video, installation and publication. </blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLCAZLDRkRI/AAAAAAAABfo/mF4L6cmYsPg/s1600/yjbucket.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="185" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLCAZLDRkRI/AAAAAAAABfo/mF4L6cmYsPg/s320/yjbucket.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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</blockquote><blockquote>In Jordan the project consisted of a collaborative video, installation and magazine which we called <em>The Beloved.</em> We did interviews with old people in the village and asked them what their most beloved object was. Through these objects we were often able to quickly get to intimate memories and the life stories associated with these. In Jerusalem this format is slightly different. There are two videos, photographs and a publication.</blockquote><blockquote>During our visit here we stayed in an apartment in Jerusalem for a month so the whole project was created in and about this space. We compiled a complete inventory of objects in the apartment and photographed them juxtaposing certain objects with others in the publication. Some of the photographs are exhibited at Anadiel.</blockquote><br />
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Their interaction with someone else’s home in Jerusalem had an added dimension which took their investigation and representation of the space to another level. The owner of the apartment lives in Ramallah but needs to keep up the appearance of living in Jerusalem otherwise it will be designated as empty and repossessed by the Israeli municipality. Therefore the representation of the space and every object in it is also the representation of an illusion that is fundamental if one is to retain the physical reality of that home in Jerusalem at all.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Always have a Plan B (II)</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Book (that wasn’t there) Launch</strong> </div><br />
Youmna Chlala and Jeanno Gaussi like to work with local organizations in whatever location their project is being executed. So they used a printer in Ramallah to print the books. When they received the publication there were some serious problems with it so although the video and photography installation at Anadiel were fine, the book launch - without the book - had to be completely re-thought. <br />
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So instead of launching the book at the Educational Bookshop on Salahuddin Street, they described the project instead through objects representing each stage: a mirror for the first imagining, an embroidery frame for the moving and staying, a pair of shoes for the leaving and chewing gum, a taste that fades, for the re-imagining. They talked about their experience of the space and how each of them developed their own video projects, and also about the wider project and how the essence of a universal human experience is contained within it. They also noted that they had not actually seen each other’s video work until they saw it as exhibited for the Jerusalem Show at Anadiel: <br />
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<blockquote>The fact that each video piece happened without the other person present, meant that it wasn’t until the moment of the show opening that we saw actually each other’s work. This was great because we each had very different interpretations of the space so we then could have a conversation about each of our different pieces which in turn starts a whole other conversation. </blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLCAPu3F0KI/AAAAAAAABfY/XppeAH6mMjg/s1600/yjtablelaunch.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLCAPu3F0KI/AAAAAAAABfY/XppeAH6mMjg/s320/yjtablelaunch.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-55200288135499955412010-10-09T13:52:00.000+02:002010-10-09T13:52:35.085+02:00RIGO 23 - Part III (Prisons and Sunflowers)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLBOil5lN_I/AAAAAAAABeo/zthe1Z4Mnzs/s1600/2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TLBOil5lN_I/AAAAAAAABeo/zthe1Z4Mnzs/s320/2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
I met with the students in the <a href="http://www.artacademy.ps/english/index.html">International Art Academy</a> over the course of several days. They kind of split into two groups: the ones who could get to Jerusalem and the ones who couldn’t. There were a group of about 6 students and I asked each one to make a contribution or bring a concept into the mural. I told them I was doing something like a tile design because of the factory and they were into that idea.<br />
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They were all kind of shy at first but when I said I was going to paint the wall one student, Azma, said ‘Don’t paint the wall!!!' She couldn’t understand why I was going to paint something so ugly. That helped to cement the notion that I should paint it because it can be invisible to visitors. So many tours come to Jerusalem to see the remnants of the holy but meanwhile they miss the incredibly unholy present.<br />
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Azma also said that she liked sunflowers. In Arabic the name of this flower means something like ‘slave of the sun’. So this started the whole idea of painting the wall not in terms of how it is a block to people moving but how it blocks out the sun which makes it anti-life in the most basic sense. <br />
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Maher said that there should be a symbol of Ramallah and suggested the lighthouse - a thing that is a beacon and shows the way. He also talked about a window so this contributed to the idea of the smaller section of the mural which shows the city of Jerusalem from the perspective of someone who cannot see it. <br />
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Two of the students, Razan and Hiba, came to Jerusalem. Hiba can travel and had been to San Francisco where I live now. When I asked her what she thought she said ‘It’s your project, you should stick to your concept. We are just students!’ This actually contributed to making me feel more comfortable making the decisions on my own. <br />
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Munzeh, who cannot leave Ramallah became very emotional about the situation. So I feel that this section of the mural that shows Jerusalem is for him. I asked him to do a design for the frame of the mural which he did. He drew it and cut it out of card and I carried it back to Jerusalem with me through the checkpoint. <br />
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Maher took me around Ramallah and he invited me to come to the place where he stays. He is from Hebron but lives in Ramallah during the week for school and only goes home on Fridays. He lives with his brothers and one of his brother’s sons. We spent all day in his small place above a shop. His younger brother had just come out of prison and Maher himself was in prison for four years during the first intifada. I stayed in the house until midnight. His brother cooked and we all shared a meal. This was really a very special night. While I was there people were coming in an out all day to visit. There were many different men and all of them had been in prison at some point. <br />
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Maher’s brother is an artist too. He made many drawings while he was in prison but when he left the Israeli guards confiscated them all and would not let him take them. So I commissioned him t o do me a drawing. He will send it to me and write something about his experiences and I will include it in my next project in the US in November. This is an exhibition of paintings by <a href="http://www.leonardpeltier.net/theman.htm">Native American Leonard Peltier</a> who has been wrongfully imprisoned in the US since 1976. He is an artist and he sells his paintings to finance his defence committee. <br />
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When I got the invitation to Jerusalem I was at the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota preparing for this show. As I read the description of Exhaustion from the Palestinian perspective it fitted like a glove. It seems right that this relationship should continue, and that I should include this work from a former Palestinian prisoner. So the project goes now back and forth to Ramallah and the United States.Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-53840778852103264822010-10-08T16:36:00.000+02:002010-10-08T16:36:16.320+02:00Young Palestinian Artists (Part IV) - Swedish Christian Study Centre<strong>Salama Safadi</strong><br />
<strong></strong><strong>Majdal Shams </strong><br />
<strong><em>Vanishing Point</em>, Video (2010)</strong><br />
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Last but certainly not least of the Young Palestinian Artists' project is Salama Safadi whose video <em>Vanishing Point</em> is being shown at the Swedish Christian Study Centre. <br />
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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. <br />
<blockquote>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)</blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8qaQeKaAI/AAAAAAAABeU/hcNj4kBqwPQ/s1600/salama+safadi+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="302" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8qaQeKaAI/AAAAAAAABeU/hcNj4kBqwPQ/s320/salama+safadi+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8qj6A2_xI/AAAAAAAABec/khTcPH8gDl0/s1600/salama+safadi+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="302" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8qj6A2_xI/AAAAAAAABec/khTcPH8gDl0/s320/salama+safadi+1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div></blockquote>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-42301630867634365402010-10-08T14:31:00.000+02:002010-10-08T14:31:24.058+02:00Vlatka Horvat - Once Over<strong><a href="http://www.vlatkahorvat.com/">Vlatka Horvat</a></strong><br />
<strong><em>Once Over</em>, 2010 (performance) </strong><br />
<strong>Partnered in Jerusalem by Razan Akermawi.</strong><br />
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Vlatka Horvat was born in Croatia but is currently based in New York. For the Jerusalem Show she presented her performance piece <em>Once Over</em>. The first incarnation of <em>Once Over</em> was developed and performed with Noémie Solomon and different versions of the piece are currently being worked on with several other collaborators. In Jerusalem her partner in the performance was Razan Akermawi and it was performed at the <a href="http://www.austrianhospice.com/en/jerusalem.htm">Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family</a>. The first performance was on Wednesday 6th and the second performance will be on Saturday 9th at 7.00. <br />
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<em>Once Over</em> features two performers sitting at opposite sides of a square table negotiating, as if playing a game of strategy, but using only their hands moving on top of the surface of the table. This amplified tabletop exchange is recorded by a camera suspended over the table and projected live on a large screen behind them. The viewers are thus simultaneously witnessing two planes of activity – the life-scale of two people locked in an intense and spontaneous interaction, and the micro negotiations taking place between their hands. The unfolding drama is accompanied by a complex amplified vocabulary of taps, swipes, thuds, scratches and bangs as the hands make contact with the surface of the table.<br />
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The human drama, juxtaposed with its disembodied representation on screen, allows the viewer to be both present in the life-scale of the performance or to escape into the pure audio visual choreography of the screen.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8N9-aSetI/AAAAAAAABeQ/EaYi8B96k7Q/s1600/6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="270" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK8N9-aSetI/AAAAAAAABeQ/EaYi8B96k7Q/s320/6.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-29142586875808020192010-10-07T10:35:00.000+02:002010-10-07T10:35:54.138+02:00Goal Dreams at Al HoashThe film screening at Al Hoash curated by Lara Khalidi and participating artist, Yazan Khalili, was the 2006 documentary, <em>Goal Dreams,</em> directed and produced by Maya Sanbar and <a href="http://www.jeffreysaunders.com/">Jeffrey Saunders.</a> The film tells the story of the Palestinian National football team as it prepared for its first round match against Uzbekistan in the 2006 World Cup.<br />
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The saying that truth is stranger than fiction is never truer than in a case like this. The Palestinian 'National' team consisted of players from Chile, Kuwait, Lebanon, the USA, Gaza and the West Bank. Despite the commitment of the Austrian coach Alfred Riedl, and the passion of businessman Tayseer Barakat in driving the project the enormity of the task ultimately defeats them. There are problems trying to unify a team who don't have a common language and where translations into and out of Arabic, English and Spanish are not always reliable. Trying to make cohesive styles of play among team members who have grown up in different continents is another difficulty. But the biggest difficulty of all is the fact that the whole team never actually manage to arrive. After three attempts to cross the unpredictable 3-stage border from Gaza into Egypt, only five of the Gazan team members are allowed through despite special permits. When they do finally arrive it is only a week or so before the match and after only a few days training they hear that close friends in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks. <br />
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As well as having to train abroad, when they do finally get to play their 'home' game it's in Qatar. There is zero possibility of playing it in Palestine because it doesn't exist even if the national team do. So they had to borrow a stadium from the Qataris instead. <br />
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It is a film that encapsulates the real and present complications of anything national and Palestinian. The diaspora and its talents is entrenched in other places and completely globally spread. As more and more time drags on in the absence of any agreement there is less and less to return to that can be unified to create a national future. The international political rhetoric also drags on unchanged for decades ensuring that the ultimate result is a permanently open goal for Israel. <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxOphaL8bUvKc_wBAzfFrYuGchx1Qgeyai4jXansVGmC3aDWRZNxOVmds0LFIT357f44f3kkKIzXzDSGnWZBg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-91046265106747612182010-10-07T09:48:00.000+02:002010-10-07T09:48:43.754+02:00Young Palestinian Artists (Part III) - French Cultural Centre<a href="http://www.consulfrance-jerusalem.org/france_jerusalem/spip.php?article318">The French Cultural Centre</a> has been a friend and partner of Al Ma''mal from the beginning. This started in 1992 when they were neighbours of Anadiel Gallery on Salahuddin Street. On Monday evening the Centre was host to Part I of Uriel Barthélémi's amazing performance <em>Exhaustion Triptych.</em> The second part of the<em> Triptych</em> was performed at Al Ma'mal last night and the third and final part will be on Saturday 9th at the Padico building. Moire about Uriel Barthélémi later but now is the time for <em>Ice Cream! </em><br />
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Throughout this Jerusalem Show the French Cultural Centre are hosting Mohamed Fadel who is another of the Young Palestinian Artists. His series of ten paintings, collectively entitled<em> Ice Cream</em>, is displayed throughout the building and each of the large and colourful works take the name of an ice cream flavour. I can't remember which painting is which flavour so you will have to guess but I do know which one is the self portrait... <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Mohamed Fadel</strong> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Kafr Yassif//Haifa</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>Ice Cream</em>, Acrylic on Canvas, (2010)</strong></div><br />
We eat the ice cream before it melts just like dreams and joy. In a moment in time we hold the ice cream in order to find our momentary joy in life, and we find it beautiful though for a few minutes. It is an extraordinary recreation and we race against time before it melts. Ice cream melts fast. It rescues us from old age and hurls us back to the time of our childhood, play and entertainment. Ice cream is a good and enjoyable thing especially for children. Who among us does not like ice cream? Who among us does not seek to enjoy that moment? We remove the garment of daily life's concerns and hardships and search for transient delight. It is the childish and spontaneous disarray caused by the ice cream, and it is a challenge to the bitter experiences of daily life whose ingredients are the blockade, terror, hunger and intimidation. It is possible to include these under the rubric of the “ice cream” war. A child’s cry reverberates, “Stop the war; stop the destruction. Let us play and feel joy. Let us taste the other flavor of life.” (Text (from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK13hBIO2qI/AAAAAAAABeA/dx9Dg6Mui44/s1600/Fadel10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK13hBIO2qI/AAAAAAAABeA/dx9Dg6Mui44/s200/Fadel10.JPG" width="192" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK13ZwXm7HI/AAAAAAAABdc/VMhatWynITk/s1600/Fadel1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK13ZwXm7HI/AAAAAAAABdc/VMhatWynITk/s200/Fadel1.JPG" width="192" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-50305929129324808022010-10-07T09:04:00.000+02:002010-10-07T09:04:12.348+02:00RIGO 23 - Part II (The Primus)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<strong>Taxi Ride Ramallah</strong><br />
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When I told the taxi driver I was from Portugal he got very excited and started telling me about his grandfather who had sold Primus Stoves from Portugal in Ramallah and always said that the best stoves came from Portugal. He then insisted on taking me on a diversion to the place his grandfather had worked and showed me all these stoves with Made in Portugal written in Arabic. He apologised for not taking me direct to the Art Academy but I said no problem. It had been really wonderful. I had learned something about my country that I never knew and I decided somehow to incorporate the stoves into the design of the mural. This taxi driver had started a whole process – a direction in itself.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK1wbs8siNI/AAAAAAAABdY/ewRfU1srgwk/s1600/rigo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TK1wbs8siNI/AAAAAAAABdY/ewRfU1srgwk/s320/rigo2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-28522784969958190432010-10-06T16:17:00.000+02:002010-10-06T16:17:00.766+02:00Young Palestinian Artists (Part II) - African Community CentreAt the African Community Centre the work of four from the Young Palestinian Artists project was exhibited. As in Al Hoash the work was very mixed in terms of medium and included painting, sculpture, installation and photography .<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY CENTRE</strong> </div><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Mohammad Hawajiri </strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Breij Camp, Gaza. </strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Between Us, Photography (2010)</strong></div><br />
This is an art project that sheds light on the paintings of martyrs which are on display in public places in Palestinian cities and refugee camps. Some of the places add a new value to the paintings posted on electric posts, roofs of houses and other high places. The paintings of different sizes have become a phenomenon in Palestinian society because it shows reverence to them and immortalizes their memory and glorifies their heroic acts. In this project I present new pictures and images of Palestinian martyrs who are still living among us but in a new creative and artistic way far from the idea of death and dissolution. (Text (abridged) from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue)<br />
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<strong></strong> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Randa Madar</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Majdal Shams, Golan Heights</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>No Sgn of Hope, sculpture (2010)</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In this work I try to put forth my vision influenced by the contradictory interaction between my body and my psyche and my inability to comprehend the entirety of events that occur in a peculiar society that has its own special political, social and economic circumstances. I did not wish to look for solutions or at motives and conditions that shape the current situation but rather I tried to present part of what lives in me while focusing on the points that seem to me to be of utmost significance. (Text (abridged) from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue) </div><br />
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<strong>Mouayad Amleh</strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Qiblan/Nablus </strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Centre Cannot Hold, Installation (2010) </strong></div><br />
<em>The Centre Cannot Hold is a portable bus stop with a seat and cover for shade. This is Mouayad Amleh’s solution for not having a bus stop he is allowed to use:</em> <br />
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I usually stand on the main road connecting the cities of Nablus and Ramallah waiting for the bus that takes me to Ramallah. I stand near Zaatara Military Barrier south of Nablus and to my left Israeli settlers from a nearby settlement, and Israeli soldiers who have just finished their shift at the barrier, wait and hide themselves under a cemented bus stop. To my right are indigenous Palestinian civilians who have been asked by the soldiers at the barrier to stand far from the cement bus stop by at least 100 metres. (Text (abridged) from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Karim Abu Shaqra </strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Umm Al Fahem </strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>2010 … 67… 48… Four Panel Painting, Acrylic on canvas (2010)</strong></div><br />
<em>This huge painting spread over four panels was displayed across the entire rear wall of the African Community Centre.</em><br />
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The work reflects the suffering of the Palestinian people and the life they have been living since 1948. The painting incorporates the meanings of suffering: pain, hardship, misery, sadness and loss of dear ones and friends. I, a Palestinian artist, am living and experiencing the current life of the Palestinian people. In this work I portray the events that my people have lived through, reflecting on the symbols and colours that stand for the past and the suffering of my people. (Text (abridged) from Jerusalem Show IV Catalogue) <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxdUUMK2tI/AAAAAAAABb0/I_M4nyqIPTw/s1600/abu+shakra+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxdUUMK2tI/AAAAAAAABb0/I_M4nyqIPTw/s320/abu+shakra+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxcNjW8-xI/AAAAAAAABbU/alwhm9XZ2dc/s1600/abu+shakra+6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="298" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxcNjW8-xI/AAAAAAAABbU/alwhm9XZ2dc/s320/abu+shakra+6.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxez9ortjI/AAAAAAAABcY/ETBEIghi2B4/s1600/abu+shakra+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxez9ortjI/AAAAAAAABcY/ETBEIghi2B4/s320/abu+shakra+14.JPG" width="226" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-67716764556002296612010-10-06T11:47:00.000+02:002010-10-06T11:47:22.238+02:00Young Palestinian Artists (Part I) Al Hoash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKwsxpmcPPI/AAAAAAAABYs/jH3l9nGNJNg/s1600/Dima5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKwsxpmcPPI/AAAAAAAABYs/jH3l9nGNJNg/s200/Dima5.JPG" width="186" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKs7LAkBjyI/AAAAAAAABXI/yFJL1fR9DiM/s1600/mirna1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKs7LAkBjyI/AAAAAAAABXI/yFJL1fR9DiM/s200/mirna1.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Mirna Bamieh</div><div style="text-align: center;">Jerusalem </div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Peeking Bag, Peeking Back</em>, Installation (2010)</div><br />
<em>Peeking Bag, Peeking Back</em> is a large suspended box with peepholes for viewers to look through. Inside the box, glass jars containing different objects are set in front of an internal mirror. Each peephole gives a slightly different view of the objects and their reflection. As the viewer moves around the box the peepholes become listening holes as the artist tells the stories and memories associated with the objects in this delicate archive.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKws8yMUEhI/AAAAAAAABYw/f9ZavUq7m8o/s1600/yazan.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="206" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKws8yMUEhI/AAAAAAAABYw/f9ZavUq7m8o/s320/yazan.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Yazan Khalili</div><div style="text-align: center;">Ramallah </div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Area C, The Distant Landscape (Images from a Landscape in Exile)</em> Photography (2010)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Under the Oslo Accords the land was divided into three distinct, and supposedly temporary, administrative areas pending a final peace agreement. Area A was placed under full control of the Palestinian Authority, Area B under Palestinian civil control but Israeli security control and Area C under full Israeli control. Area C constitutes, by far, the majority of the land area. This series of photographs depicts Area C as an exiled landscape in which the traveler, now passing through on a ribbon of designated asphalt, perceives only an image of the landscape that becomes ever more distant, rather than a physical space in which he is present. The process of repeatedly travelling through and photographing the landscape becomes the only way to reclaim a presence.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKwtFkFJjWI/AAAAAAAABY0/u6t9vGjliJQ/s1600/Nisreen2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="255" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKwtFkFJjWI/AAAAAAAABY0/u6t9vGjliJQ/s320/Nisreen2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Nisreen Najjar</div><div style="text-align: center;">Nazareth </div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Route 443</em>, Installation (2010)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">This installation of disembodied sections of road with amusement park loops that lead nowhere, is a physically imposing representation of Route 443, the controversial main road linking Jerusalem and the West Bank settlements with Tel Aviv. Large areas of Palestinian land were confiscated for the road’s construction which was completely closed to Palestinians, including emergency vehicles, after the second uprising. This left Palestinians with roads already designated as unfit for use. The installation detaches the road from this absurd reality and transposes it to a situation in which it can embody the surreal world in which it lives. </div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxBFnhJbVI/AAAAAAAABZM/V5fyWST7eYE/s1600/Inass+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="241" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKxBFnhJbVI/AAAAAAAABZM/V5fyWST7eYE/s320/Inass+2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Inass Yassin</div><div style="text-align: center;">Assira al Shamalieh / Ramallah</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>Projection (Edition 2),</em> Installation (2010)</div><em>Projection</em> is an ongoing art and research project exploring urban and socio-political change in contemporary Palestinian Society. The project looks at the culture and history of cinema in Palestine and the impact when cinemas were closed or demolished. Edition 2 looks specifically at the Al Walid Cinema in Ramallah / Al Bireh which finally closed in 2000 after being invaded and partially destroyed by the Israeli military. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKtRIjzGD2I/AAAAAAAABYI/fGja-9cw60U/s1600/Dima4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ex="true" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKtRIjzGD2I/AAAAAAAABYI/fGja-9cw60U/s320/Dima4.JPG" width="152" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Dima Hourani</div><div style="text-align: center;">Ramallah</div><div style="text-align: center;"><em>N'oreal,</em> Installation (2010)</div><br />
<em>N'oreal</em> is a three part installation consisting of a large commercial light box and an assortment of postcards and T-shirts printed with other related images and text. The project uses the beauty industry and its promotional design to reference negative impacts of globalization. However, it is intermeshed with the political imagery of the Palestinian context creating a subversive collision of cosmetics, consumption and military occupation.<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash is on Zahra Street</strong> </div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-60037583340423520812010-10-05T13:10:00.000+02:002010-10-05T13:10:16.087+02:00Day Three – Young Palestinian ArtistsDay Three was a very busy day with visits to the <a href="http://www.palestine-family.net/index.php?nav=5-206&cid=494&did=2749">African Community Centre,</a> the <a href="http://www.bilda.nu/sv/Snabbval/SCSC/">Swedish Christian Study Centre</a>, <a href="http://www.alhoashgallery.org/aboutus.shtml">Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash</a> and the <a href="http://www.consulfrance-jerusalem.org/france_jerusalem/spip.php?article318">French Cultural Centre</a>. However all of these venues are linked as a result of a partnership formed for this year’s Jerusalem Show between Al Ma'mal and Al Hoash. <br />
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The project - <a href="http://young%20palestinian%20artists/">Young Palestinian Artists</a> - began as an independent initiative of Al Hoash that would be timed to coincide with the Jerusalem Show. However from the very earliest stages of the project it was clear that the project was ideal for a full partnership. <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">In April /May 2010 Al Hoash announced the project and invited young Palestinians Artists between the ages of 20 and 30 to send in proposals for work to be included in the show. The call for submissions went out in newspapers, magazines and websites and was advertised in universities and cultural centres in Palestinian cities and the Diaspora. 62 proposals were received by Al Hoash and assessed by a jury consisting of Rawan Sharaf Director of Al Hoash, Jack Persekian, artist Suleiman Mansour, <a href="http://www.artacademy.ps/english/index.html">Tina Sherwell,</a> <a href="http://www.artschoolpalestine.com/">Samar Martha</a> and <a href="http://www.majhasager.net/">Mai Hasager</a>.A decision was made in June and eleven were chosen. </div><br />
The work of these eleven young artists is now being exhibited by the four organisations listed above resulting in a perfect match of venues and work. For Rawan Sharaf: <br />
<blockquote>This is a very good step for cultural work in Jerusalem. It helped us to join forces and resources and this makes us both stronger. </blockquote><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKsGyufSVSI/AAAAAAAABW8/xaSBV5ob7gA/s1600/almamal+letterhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="51" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKsGyufSVSI/AAAAAAAABW8/xaSBV5ob7gA/s320/almamal+letterhead.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-9570879331845305192010-10-04T13:16:00.002+02:002010-10-05T15:31:11.479+02:00RIGO 23 - Part I (The Wall)<blockquote>Al Ma’mal invited me to paint a mural. We discussed where and what scale but because a mural in the city would have to be erased after the Jerusalem Show, they decided that it should actually be painted on the wall at the entrance to Al-Ma’mal itself. I said that ideally I would like to work with a group of young people and they said OK. We tried to find a group to work with in Jerusalem but it didn’t quite work with the project so Al Ma’mal suggested I work with students from the International Academy of Art, Palestine, in Ramallah. </blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKmz9fJB_eI/AAAAAAAABWo/oJjeHDT82jo/s1600/wall.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" px="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKmz9fJB_eI/AAAAAAAABWo/oJjeHDT82jo/s320/wall.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><blockquote>At this point the working title for the piece was <em>Just another hole in the wall</em>, a reference to the Pink Floyd album <em>The Wall</em>. However, the students were not granted permits to come to Jerusalem to work on the project so there had to be a change of plan. This was really the beginning of being here for me. Al Ma’mal said they could try and find another group in Jerusalem but I said no. The Ramallah students can’t come here but I can go to them so that was how the title of this collaborative project became <em>Back and Forth to </em></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The plain wall is small for a mural but because Al Ma’mal refers to the Tile Factory I thought about using tiles and for this, the wall is big. So this could shift the scale of the wall and connect to the Factory at the same time. </div></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2009-08-04/rigo-23-emory-douglas-new-museum/"><strong>RIGO 23 - INTERVIEW</strong></a> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKsmenMZ9zI/AAAAAAAABXA/X6geZfepcF0/s1600/tile.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKsmenMZ9zI/AAAAAAAABXA/X6geZfepcF0/s200/tile.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-66248385235455012142010-10-04T12:50:00.001+02:002010-10-04T15:33:51.900+02:00Day Two - Always Have a Plan BThe first night of film screenings at Al Ma’mal opened with an apology that the films on the programme were not actually going to be shown after all. <br />
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<a href="http://www.goethe.de/ins/eg/prj/abs/jor/en5369671.htm">Full Bloom</a> had been due to arrive in Jerusalem that day along with its Director, Sandra Madi, but she hadn't been able to get a visa despite coming from next door neighbour Jordan. Is there some ‘deny film maker’ clause in the 1994 Peace Agreement between Jordan and Israel that I don’t know about? The only relevant clause I remember was a ban on 'hostile propaganda', whatever that means but I don't think it means a film about a boxer. <br />
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So the audience had arrived and were waiting for the film that wasn't there to begin. Al Ma’mal had to find a fast and appropriate alternative….. which it did. <br />
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In 2004 British Artist Phil Collins approached Al Ma’mal with an idea for a video in which he would film a <a href="http://almamal.blogspot.com/2010/08/phil-collins-they-shoot-horses.html">dance marathon in Ramallah</a>. He worked with a group of Palestinian teenagers and the idea was that they would dance for 8 hours solid or until they were so exhausted they couldn’t continue. The resulting video has since been screened extensively around the world. <br />
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However, the original idea came from a 1969 film directed by Sidney Pollack called <em>They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?</em> The film is set during the great depression of the 1930s and is the story of a dance marathon near Hollywood in which people participated either for the prize money, to be noticed by Hollywood talent scouts or just for the free food. As the marathon turns into weeks, the spectacle becomes ever more macabre as exhaustion and desperation initiate the physical and psychological disintegration of those remaining. When the main protagonist discovers there are numerous hidden deductions from the prize money, she abandons the marathon, begging her equally desperate and exhausted dance partner to shoot her through the head, which he does. <br />
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<em>They Shoot Horses, Don't They?</em> communicated something deeply disturbing about the human condition in its own era but repositioning the obvious parallels in the context of Exhaustion and Jerusalem was an inspired Plan B.Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-77291950753454710682010-10-04T11:10:00.000+02:002010-10-04T11:10:57.599+02:00Ariane Michel<a href="http://arianemichel.monsite-orange.fr/">Ariane Michel’s</a> video work tends to focus on animals and the three works presented during the Jerusalem show are no exception. Two of these works, <em>Celeste’s Birds</em> and <em>Wide Eyes</em> were special screenings at Al Ma’mal in the context of <a href="http://nuitblanche.paris.fr/">La Nuit Blanche</a>, an ongoing project initiated in Paris. The other work, <em>On the earth</em> was screened specifically as part of <em>Exhaustion</em>. <br />
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<strong>La Nuit Blanche at Al Ma'mal</strong> <br />
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<em>Celeste’s Birds</em> is collaboration with <a href="http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article2335">Celeste Boursier-Mougenot</a> who released birds into a gallery where he had placed suspended guitars in place of perches. The guitars were plugged into amplifiers resulting in sound every time the small, quick and darting birds landed on the strings. The guitar sounds are fused with chirping and beating of wings creating a unique and fascinating composition that is also compelling to watch. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><em>The Round Eyes</em> brings Paris to Jerusalem and also with the focus on a bird A young owl sits on a branch in the middle of Paris with some iconic and brightly lit markers of the city visible in the distance. The middle ground is full of the busy night time traffic. The owl seems oblivious to this urban and human activity and its occasional gaze, deep into the camera offers the viewer not only a different perspective, but the perception of arrested time. Originally made to be projected on the side of the <a href="http://www.jeudepaume.org/">Musee de Jeu Paume</a> in Paris, <em>The Round Eyes</em>, was screened against the walls of the <a href="http://almamal.blogspot.com/2010/04/founding-of-al-mamal.html">Tile Factory</a> where it acquired the added textural dimension of the stone. </div><br />
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<strong>Exhaustion</strong><br />
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Ariane Michel's work for Exhaustion is being shown at Nicola Zaphiriades shop near Al Ma'mal. This video called <em>On the earth</em>, shows a beach full of sleeping walruses. Behind them is a landscape of calm sea and rock through which a big wooden boat slowly passes. The animals move minimally and infrequently but like the owl often seem to look into the camera directly. Both image and sound are natural giving the audience a direct connection to the environment and although it seems to be in slow motion it is actually in real time. The composition is meticulous:<br />
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<blockquote>One of the subjects of this work is time. Like stones these beasts are ancient and they allow the viewer to enter another time and to slow down. I want it to be almost therapeutic. Allowing people to watch and hear and reconnect their senses to another time and place. It is important to show works that can possibly give people some rest. In this sense it works with the theme of the show because it’s purpose is to give relief. (Ariane Michel, Jerusalem, October 2010) </blockquote><br />
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</div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-17426895306912287262010-10-03T16:49:00.000+02:002010-10-03T16:49:13.033+02:00The Emergence of ExhaustionThe theme of Exhaustion was palpable after just three venues on the opening walk of the 4th Jerusalem Show. Reviews of work at the eight other venues and of special performances and film screenings are to follow but first a brief summary. <br />
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Eighteen Palestinian and international artists were invited by Al Mamal to think through the theme of Exhaustion in the context of the city and its environment, and to produce work that explored issues involved in this condition and feeling which afflicts the whole of Palestinian society and is palpable in Jerusalem particularly. In addition, 11 young Palestinian artists were commissioned by <a href="http://www.alhoashgallery.org/">Palestinian Art Court, Al Hoash</a> to produce new artworks to be presented in the framework of the Jerusalem Show. Jumana Abboud and Jack Persekian drafted an outline of what Exhaustion meant in the context and sent this to selected artists asking them to respond. They were already aware of the existing work of some artists that would fit very well with the theme and in some cases these specific works were requested.<br />
<blockquote>The theme for the Jerusalem Show IV-2010 is inspired by the prevailing state of apathy, anger, helplessness, docility and alienation in one’s own town. Exhaustion describes best the widespread feeling amongst the majority of the inhabitants of the city. Be it the closure, the lack of any viable solution or even a political horizon, the crumbling economic conditions, the closing in of Palestinian residents through an orchestrated policy of confiscation, demolition, fines and taxation, all contribute to a state of insecurity and fear of the future. Nothing is offered, given or provided hence people revert to snatch, grab, jump the line, and most importantly break the atrocious laws, any laws even those that govern human relations. All this calls for some investigation, some probing and possibly uncovering and betrayal. (Al Ma'mal, Invitaton to artists, 2010) </blockquote>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-56441079362438447332010-10-02T14:30:00.000+02:002010-10-02T14:30:45.054+02:00Notes on an Opening<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><strong>JERUSALEM SHOW IV</strong> - </span><strong><span style="color: black;">EXHAUSTION</span></strong></div><br />
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There is a woman with a laptop in a huge room. She is performing in sound to accompany the sunset over Jerusalem from the top floor of the <a href="http://www.padico.com/">Padico</a> building in the heart of the Old City. The room is full but seems somehow empty because most of the people are standing or sitting around the edges. It’s as if they are reluctant to intrude upon the beauty of the floor. The room fills with the softening light from the pale orange sky. From every arched window a panoramic view of the Old City. The sounds go down gently with the sun. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcNlYmuQrI/AAAAAAAABUo/XoJWTModUiI/s1600/4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcNlYmuQrI/AAAAAAAABUo/XoJWTModUiI/s1600/4.JPG" /></a></div><div align="center">Sarah Faruki, Light Composition (2010)</div><div align="center">Sound Installation</div><br />
Up on the roof Jack Persekian introduces the 4th Jerusalem Show. He talks about the theme, Exhaustion, and about the walk that 100 or so people are about to take to 8 venues through the darkening streets of the Old City. It’s very hot for six o’ clock in the evening. “Not even the weather is normal anymore” says somebody. Before starting off, the 100 go down in small groups to the damp basement where a video projected on to the wall shows a man shovelling sand relentlessly from one pile to another. It's a task that never progresses. The wall is rounded, damp slightly crumbling. The shape and texture becomes part of the film. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcPzA8MCRI/AAAAAAAABU0/HNq_e4IYeZ4/s1600/6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcPzA8MCRI/AAAAAAAABU0/HNq_e4IYeZ4/s1600/6.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Taysir Batniji, Impossible Journey </div><div style="text-align: center;">Video documentation of Performance, 2002-2009</div><br />
Next we arrive at the <a href="http://www.spafford-jerusalem.org/">Spafford Children’s centre</a> and the interior of the building is again an amazing thing to see. The tiled floors, the huge rooms, the stone, the doors, the details. A video. A girl hangs upside down as the camera alternates between her view of things and our view of her. The rain pours down and soaks her and still she hangs. A fire is lit behind her and still she hangs. Normal things happen – cats playing, taps dripping – and still she hangs. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcV-iVayQI/AAAAAAAABVA/iC5JHViltmA/s1600/9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" px="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcV-iVayQI/AAAAAAAABVA/iC5JHViltmA/s320/9.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Bahar Behbahani, Suspended (2007) </div><div style="text-align: center;">Video</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Another video. Looking down on soldiers marching in formation. Up and down. Turn around. Up and down. Turn around. In the shade. Out of the shade. Back in the shade. Back out of the shade. Hats off. Hats on. Off. On. Repeat. But the choreography of this battalion is not precise. You wonder if they are really soldiers or if it is just their own weariness.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcNZc1PytI/AAAAAAAABUk/XBQ7S5zqT_0/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcNZc1PytI/AAAAAAAABUk/XBQ7S5zqT_0/s1600/1.JPG" /></a></div><div align="center">Khaled Jarrar, I Soldier (2010)</div><div align="center">Video </div><br />
Someone unlocks the big door to the <a href="http://www.austrianhospice.com/en/jerusalem.htm">Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family</a>. It is already starting to feel like a privilege to be seeing the interiors of these buildings. Like being granted access to a secret manuscript but for this community it's normal. It's theirs. Another beautiful room. Tiled floors. Richly decorated walls, dark wooden doors and painted ceilings. Another video. This one is like watching Ophelia trying to prevent herself from drowning. And we are only at the third venue. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcWGWC_4wI/AAAAAAAABVE/hTuM78gCWqk/s1600/8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKcWGWC_4wI/AAAAAAAABVE/hTuM78gCWqk/s1600/8.JPG" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> Raeda Saadeh, Drops (2010) </div><div style="text-align: center;">Video </div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-18736342748943792122010-10-01T15:58:00.010+02:002010-10-03T18:37:34.753+02:00Jerusalem Syndrome 2009<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKipSjygX0I/AAAAAAAABVw/5C6ihcNzdxY/s1600/2009+Issa+Freij+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKipSjygX0I/AAAAAAAABVw/5C6ihcNzdxY/s320/2009+Issa+Freij+poster.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><br />
<blockquote>The city of Jerusalem is characterized by the concentration of diversity and its conflicts - spiritual, political and territorial at the same time. The Jerusalem Syndrome overtakes tourists, who are overwhelmed by the unique denseness of spiritual sites in the Holy City, their history and imaginaries. Between fifty and two hundred travellers, pilgrims and tourists, every year are affected by the syndrome, believing they are Virgin Mary or the Messiah. They are walking around the city, trying to spread the news of their palingenesis or the apocalypse – before they are taken to the state psychiatric ward. <br />
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Therefore the Jerusalem Syndrome stands for enlightenment and collapse at the same time, it is the strongest effect Jerusalem can have on the personality of a visitor. The madness and illusion of being chosen also characterizes the relations of religion and power, when the historical importance of religious sites are cited to legitimate territorial claims over the city. In this sense Jerusalem is also the nucleus of the occupation and its spatial-military practice. (Introduction to the Jerusalem Show 2009) .</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKipkuM1adI/AAAAAAAABV0/6DSr_Eh2V7M/s1600/2009+taysir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKipkuM1adI/AAAAAAAABV0/6DSr_Eh2V7M/s320/2009+taysir.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
In 2009 Jerusalem was designated <a href="http://www.alquds2009.org/english.php">Capital of Arab Culture</a> by the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO). This usually entails a year long programme of events in the designated city supported by Arab League members and cultural organisations. Jerusalem would have been difficult at the best of times given the difficulties of approval for a celebration of Arab Culture in Jerusalem. As 2009 began, however, there were far worse problems than the Israeli municipality. The aerial bombardment of Gaza and subsequent ground invasion were ongoing and tensions among Palestinians and the wider Arab world were exacerbated as a consequence. Not an ideal time to be planning for an Arab Culture festival. <br />
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In the end the official launch of the <a href="http://www.alquds2009.org/english.php">Capital of Arab Culture</a> in Jerusalem had to be delayed by several months and even then the challenges of trying to organize events in a city sealed off from the majority of the Palestinian population were as absurd as ever. However, the Jerusalem Show in 2009 was also a part of this wider framework and as a consequence extra resources were available. This was reflected in the additional sponsorship and support that the Jerusalem Show managed to bring on board which had a huge impact on what the Jerusalem Syndrome was able to do:<br />
<blockquote>What it meant was that we could invite more artists and more guests and also generate better publicity. First and foremost it allowed us to put together some significant installations like Ramallah Syndrome [Sandi Hilal + Alessandro Petti] which was installed in PADICO. This was a technically quite sophisticated project and these kinds of complex technical systems are expensive. This project in particular was very, very important because it concerns a phenomenon which has had a huge impact on Jerusalem and is a very present discussion among Palestinians. The work was a sound installation capturing a series of these informal discussions. (Jack Persekian, October 2010)</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKirLXAroEI/AAAAAAAABV8/uyZ0wIUtT-c/s1600/2009+ram+syn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKirLXAroEI/AAAAAAAABV8/uyZ0wIUtT-c/s320/2009+ram+syn.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The ‘Ramallah Syndrome’ essentially refers to the impression created and promoted that Ramallah is a successful, developing and dynamic city that demonstrates concrete and tangible results on the ground of the ‘success’ of the failed Oslo Peace Process. This constant positive and illusory focus on Ramallah as a PR tool to justify both the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo process is seen as contributing much to Jerusalem’s decline and invisibility. It obscures the economic and social deprivation of Palestinians in Jerusalem and also in other Palestinian cities, and is essentially seen as a surreal act of propaganda for a failed process and an impotent authority. Installing the work in Jerusalem that year took on an added importance because it came fresh from <a href="http://www.palestinecoveniceb09.org/exhibitionsinpalestine.html">Palestine c/o Venice,</a> the first ever Palestinian representation at the Venice Biennale.<br />
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The whole programme in 2009 included 30 artists, a co-curator, Nina Montmann and film programmes curated by Rasha Salti, Lara Khalidi and Yazan Khallili. Partnerships and events this year were also able to go beyond Jerusalem. The show coincided with the <a href="http://www.riwaqbiennale.org/">3rd Riwaq Biennale</a> in Ramallah, headed by Khalil Rabah, and there were several concurrent events. Joint symposia were also held at Birzeit University and menat that Jack Persekian and Khalil Rabah worked together again for the first time in many years. Huda Iman’s <a href="http://www.jerusalem-studies.alquds.edu/">Centre for Jerusalem Studies</a> at Al Quds University was once again involved in organizing walking tours around the Old City while another Ramallah partner was the <a href="http://www.artacademy.ps/english/index.html">International Art Academy, Palestine</a>. The Academy, founded in 2006, was headed by Dr. Tina Sherwell, an early contributor to Al-Ma’mal’s workshops as was tutor Rula Halawani. Another of the academy's tutors was Emily Jacir who had exhibited as artist in residence at Al Ma'mal and been part of both previous Jerusalem Shows.<br />
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There were also concurrent activities running throughout the Show including <a href="http://www.voicesbeyondwalls.org/projects/youth_visions_jerusalem.html">Youth Visions of Jerusalem</a>, an exhibition of new media art projects made by Al Ma'mal workshop participants at <a href="http://imeu.net/news/article007981.shtml">Bethlehem Peace Center</a> and architectural trails organized by the Riwaq Biennial which took visitors to important heritage sites in Birzeit, Taybeh, Hebron and Galilee.<br />
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The designation of Jerusalem as Capital of Arab Culture did make a difference on the ground that year despite the difficulties. What it proved was that extra international support not only helps one institution to grow and mature but enables greater co-operation between several, when the pressure of competition for limited resources is temporarily eased. In the enduring absence of normality it was also a rare opportunity to express the cultural contiguity, impervious to checkpoints and walls, that remains between Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities. <br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jerusalem Syndrome - The Jerusalem Show 2009</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Artists: Jumana Emil Abboud, Nevin Aladag, Ayreen Anastas + Rene Gabri, Samira Badran, Taysir Batniji, Nathan Coley, Collaboration Around Micro Politics Mumbai (CAMP), Phil Collins, Kajsa Dahlberg, Andrea Faciu, Issa Freij, Raouf Haj-Yahia, Sandi Hilal + Alessandro Petti + Basel Abbas + Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Mahmoud Hojeij, Khaled Hourani, Maider Lopez, Ken Lum, Sliman Mansour, Olaf Nicolai, Ria Pacquee, Wael Shawky, Ala Younis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Performance:</strong> Basel Abbas + Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Tarek Atoui, Phil Collins, Dora Garcia, Suheir Hammad</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>Sound Project:</strong> curated by Federica Bueti in collaboration with RAM, Radio Arte Mobile, Rome (Italy)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Artists: Elisabetta Benassi, Riccardo Benassi, Alvin Curran, Etienne Chambaud, Liam Gillick, Christina Kubisch, Brandon La Belle, Tris Vonna Michell, Carsten Nicolai, Cesare Pietroiusti, Vettor Pisani, Annie Ratti, Michael J. Schumacher, Valerio Tricoli, Stephen Vitiello, Luca Vitone, Achim Wollscheid</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">How I Have Missed You</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Film Program I co-presented with ArteEast, curated by Rasha Salti</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Films by Maher Abi Samra, Ghassan Salhab, Mohamed Soueid and Akram Zaatari</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">We Are Never Heroes</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Film Program II curated by Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Films by Johan Grimonprez, Annemarie Jacir, Mustafa Abu Ali, JeanLuc Godard, Elia Suleiman</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Walks & Tours in Jerusalem</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Organized by the Center for Jerusalem Studies Al Quds University</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Collaborating institutions</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A.M. Qattan Foundation, Anadiel Gallery, ArteEast, Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family, Center for Jerusalem Studies - Al Quds University, College des Freres, International Academy of Art Palestine, Palestine Development and Investment Limited (PADICO), RAM - Radio Arte Mobile, Rome, Riwaq Biennale, Shabaka - Network of Arab Cineclubs, Spafford Children’s Center, The Jerusalem Hotel, The Tile Factory, The Swedish Christian Study Center, Venice c/o Palestine, Versavee Cafe, Jerusalem.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sponsors and Supporters</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family, Consulate General of Belgium in Jerusalem and The Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC), Bohen Foundation, British Council, Consulat Général de France à Jérusalem, Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Ford Foundation, Goethe Institute - Ramallah, Palestinian Investment Fund, Prince Claus Fund for Culture & Development, Sharjah Art Foundation, The Jerusalem Unit, Sociedad Estatal para la Accion Cultural Exterior (Seacex), Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) - Jerusalem, The Representative Office of Canada to the PA.</span>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-3741746858633365662010-09-29T15:40:00.000+02:002010-09-29T15:40:06.997+02:00The Jerusalem Show 2008<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM9lrTvNII/AAAAAAAABSs/Zq9cdwkQRFo/s1600/sliman1.web+jshpow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM9lrTvNII/AAAAAAAABSs/Zq9cdwkQRFo/s320/sliman1.web+jshpow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
The first Jerusalem Show had essentially been a pilot but had worked so well that a decision was taken to make it an annual event: <br />
<blockquote>I think we realised that this was the way forward. Over the previous 10 years Al-Ma’mal had built a presence and established its programmes so people were no longer noticing the work we did in the same way. The Jerusalem Show was a way to sum up the work we do for the whole year and to put it all into one big event using every venue in the city. (Jack Persekian, Interview 2010)</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM-OCKQuXI/AAAAAAAABTA/CADRCLw-zDU/s1600/sophie2.web+jshow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM-OCKQuXI/AAAAAAAABTA/CADRCLw-zDU/s320/sophie2.web+jshow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The Jerusalem Show became a way of not only consolidating everything that Al Ma’mal had done but also involving the community directly in an event dedicated to their city. Another practical benefit was that preparations for the show meant that Al-Ma’mal could provide work experience for students and volunteers. Thus when the idea of the second Jerusalem Show was raised in 2008, local organizations and institutions once again enthusiastically offered their support.<br />
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The success of the guided tours of the exhibition in 2007 contributed to the underlying concept for the second Jerusalem Show which was Walks in the City with routes inspired by the organization of artworks both indoors and outdoors throughout the Old City. In this sense the walks in the city became a kind of treasure hunt for artworks with some easier to find than others. Emily Jacir created a sound work installed at Damascus Gate (Bab il Amoud). From a speaker mounted on a balcony came calls from servees or communal taxi drivers announcing the departure of the taxis to neighbouring cities like Amman and Damascus, regular taxi routes before 1967. The sound of their voices calling out the city names was a reminder of the once fluid space of movement, connection and exchange. <br />
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Less than ten minutes from Damascus Gate in a narrow residential alley was another site-specific installation by Manar Zuaibi called O’shb Akhdar Akhdar (Green Green Grass). Zuaibi threaded wires inside long strings of red wool and inserted the red thread into the holes between stones in the walls so that each then spontaneously burst forth from the holes in the walls. <br />
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Intervening in the physical environment in ways that could not be overlooked was a feature of the second Jerusalem Show. Nida Sinnokrot positioned 3mm LEDs throughout the Old City which shone a brilliant blue for approximately 15 days. Once discovered the lights invariably shifted location in the hands of children and adults alike, mapping their own passage throughout the City. <br />
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Oraib Toukan worked with an economist to calculate the real market values for the purchase of nation states on a 99-year lease-hold and then produced auction catalogues and signs for upcoming auctions of Middle East territory. Henrik Placht mounted a large neon sign.<br />
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25 artists participated in the second Jerusalem Show and several of these were former artists in residence at Al-Ma'mal. The range of mediums were customarily eclectic and included paintings, photography, film screenings, videos and performances including Elizabeth Sansome’s The Secrets of Mary Magdalene <br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">One exhibition was also a truly organically integrated Jerusalem event. It was an exhibition of work from Al-Ma’mal’s workshops in co-operation with Burj Al-Laqlaq Community Centre and Relief International, sponsored by grants from the Pontifical Mission and the Society for Austro-Arab Relations. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Film maker Issa Freij documented the people, the works and the walks of the 2nd Jerusalem Show in a film called Forgive and Forget. While The Jerusalem Show was a chance to experience the city in the here and now the title of the film, Forgive and Forget, was an ironic marker of the 60th anniversary of 1948. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM4_pIq2aI/AAAAAAAABSQ/yPuy27beXHQ/s1600/jshow7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKM4_pIq2aI/AAAAAAAABSQ/yPuy27beXHQ/s320/jshow7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8984087081748355249.post-50952234735513519562010-09-27T12:37:00.001+02:002012-04-16T11:43:08.223+03:00THE FIRST JERUSALEM SHOW - 2007<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><blockquote style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> <strong>I remember the day Jack came into the office, handed us a document and said ‘Jumana, Raeda, Khadijeh - here is the idea for the Jerusalem Show. Read it and tell me what you think. I think we should do it this year. (Jumana Abboud Interview April 2010)</strong> </blockquote></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The year referred to was 2007 and another major development for Al- Ma’mal that year was the inaugural Jerusalem Show. Putting on a major art event in the Old City of Jerusalem was an idea that had actually been around for a very long time. The idea was not only discussed at Anadiel in 1996/97, but was developed to the extent that Anadiel produced a blueprint banner for the potential event which even then was being referred to as the Jerusalem Show.<br />
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In 1997, however, it didn’t go any further and it took ten years for the Jerusalem Show to become a reality. According the Jack Persekian there were two reasons for this: <br />
<blockquote><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The main reason is that in 1997 I didn’t have the confidence to put such a project together – and of course I thought it would cost too much money that we just didn’t have. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">By 2007 I had done a few Biennials and put on big shows. This gave me a lot more confidence and I thought that money would come regardless. The main thing was to get the artists and the plans and just pull it together. (Jack Persekian, Interview April 2010).</div></blockquote><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">And pull it together they did. The first Jerusalem Show titled <em>Outside the Gates of Heaven </em>was held from October 20 to 30 2007. It featured 22 artists including both local and Diaspora Palestinians and international artists with work shown in different locations throughout the Old City. Al Ma’mal’s network of artists, institutions and partners built up over the preceding ten years provided venues, collaborative projects and various other kinds of cooperation and support. The Show was described by Al-Ma’mal in the following way: </div><br />
<blockquote>The Jerusalem Show is neither a biennial nor a one-time event. It is neither a large-scale show nor an international grand exhibition. We like to see it as an attempt to intercede between the apocalyptic decadal tides of upheaval under which the city kneels, stealing time during the ebb of violence to wage an action of covert resistance to the forced hegemony of one creed and one people on the city. (Al-Ma’mal (2007) website text). </blockquote><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Naoko Takahashi</td></tr>
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As well as the art itself there were several other components to the Jerusalem Show. Jack Persekian led guided tours of the exhibition in which audiences were taken on a voyage of discovery through the narrow streets and alleys of the city, up onto rooftops and into community centres and clubs. Another unique tour organized by the Centre for Jerusalem Studies (CJS) at Al-Quds University took visitors underground on the Old City Tunnel Tour. <br />
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There was a workshop programme with Samira Badran and Rula Khoury organized by the Palestinian Art Court – Al Hoash and held at the Saraya Center for Community Services. There was a performance by S<em>ydost </em>a contemporary dance group who had been invited by the Swedish Christian Study Centre. There was a special performance by Al-Hakawati Theatre’s Francois Abu Salem of Mahmoud Darwish’s <em>A Memory for Forgetfulness</em> at the Palestinian National Theatre. <br />
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There was also a special concert screening called <em>Entry Denied</em>. In 2002 Marwan Abado and his band had been invited to perform a concert in Jerusalem but they were detained on arrival in Tel Aviv airport and denied entry. Emily Jacir asked Abado and his band to perform the concert in an empty theatre in Vienna, exactly as it would have taken place in Jerusalem. She filmed the performance and brought the concert to Jerusalem in 2007. Its screening in the Tile Factory building was an additional defiance enabling Al Ma’mal to present the Tile Factory space to an audience and to incorporate it into the framework of the Jerusalem Show regardless of its unrenovated state.<br />
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The Jerusalem Show was unprecedented and therefore risky, but it worked on many different levels and established another benchmark for the future of cultural life and creative activity in the City. It also contributed much to fulfilling another of Al Ma’mal’s stated objectives for the show: <br />
<blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>….. to re-define our work and position in Jerusalem from that of artistic space-fillers to activists. In a context and time such as this, art, culture, activism, manifestations, political protest, social work, etc., are all part of our actions and our understanding of what a show in Jerusalem should entail. (Jack Persekian 2007, Al Ma'mal website text)</blockquote><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKBvpLTTtAI/AAAAAAAABRM/FjsKIhVgJ18/s1600/j+suh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" px="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FWTJRHuznVs/TKBvpLTTtAI/AAAAAAAABRM/FjsKIhVgJ18/s320/j+suh.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">For full participant list please click here: </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.almamalfoundation.org/index.php?action=events&type=9">THE JERUSALEM SHOW</a></div>Writer-in-Residencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04400050130812983737noreply@blogger.com0