Young Palestinian Artists (Part I) Al Hoash

 

Mirna Bamieh

Jerusalem

Peeking Bag, Peeking Back, Installation (2010)

Peeking Bag, Peeking Back 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.

Yazan Khalili

Ramallah

Area C, The Distant Landscape (Images from a Landscape in Exile) Photography (2010)

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.

Nisreen Najjar

Nazareth

Route 443, Installation (2010)

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.

Inass Yassin

Assira al Shamalieh / Ramallah

Projection (Edition 2), Installation (2010)

Projection 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.

Dima Hourani

Ramallah

N'oreal, Installation (2010)

N'oreal 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.

Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash is on Zahra Street

Day Three – Young Palestinian Artists

Day Three was a very busy day with visits to the African Community Centre, the Swedish Christian Study Centre, Palestinian Art Court - Al Hoash and the French Cultural Centre. 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.

The project - Young Palestinian Artists - 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.

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, Tina Sherwell, Samar Martha and Mai Hasager.A decision was made in June and eleven were chosen.

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: 

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.

RIGO 23 - Part I (The Wall)

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.

At this point the working title for the piece was Just another hole in the wall, a reference to the Pink Floyd album The Wall. 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 Back and Forth to

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.

RIGO  23 - INTERVIEW

Day Two - Always Have a Plan B

The 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.

Full Bloom 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.

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.

In 2004 British Artist Phil Collins approached Al Ma’mal with an idea for a video in which he would film a dance marathon in Ramallah. 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.

However, the original idea came from a 1969 film directed by Sidney Pollack called They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? 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.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 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.

Ariane Michel

Ariane Michel’s video work tends to focus on animals and the three works presented during the Jerusalem show are no exception. Two of these works, Celeste’s Birds and Wide Eyes were special screenings at Al Ma’mal in the context of La Nuit Blanche, an ongoing project initiated in Paris. The other work, On the earth was screened specifically as part of Exhaustion.

La Nuit Blanche at Al Ma'mal

Celeste’s Birds is collaboration with Celeste Boursier-Mougenot 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.

The Round Eyes 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 Musee de Jeu Paume in Paris, The Round  Eyes, was screened against the walls of the Tile Factory where it acquired the added textural dimension of the stone.

Exhaustion

Ariane Michel's work for Exhaustion is being shown at  Nicola Zaphiriades shop near Al Ma'mal. This video called On the earth, 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:

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)

The Emergence of Exhaustion

The 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.

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 Palestinian Art Court, Al Hoash 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.

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) 

Notes on an Opening

JERUSALEM SHOW IV - EXHAUSTION

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 Padico 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. 

Sarah Faruki, Light Composition (2010)

Sound Installation

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.

Taysir Batniji, Impossible Journey

Video documentation of Performance, 2002-2009

Next we arrive at the Spafford Children’s centre 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. 

Bahar Behbahani, Suspended (2007) 

Video

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.

Khaled Jarrar, I Soldier (2010)

Video 

Someone unlocks the big door to the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family. 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.

 Raeda Saadeh, Drops (2010) 

Video 

Jerusalem Syndrome 2009

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.

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) .

In 2009 Jerusalem was designated Capital of Arab Culture 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.

In the end the official launch of the Capital of Arab Culture 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:

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)

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 Palestine c/o Venice, the first ever Palestinian representation at the Venice Biennale.

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 3rd Riwaq Biennale 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 Centre for Jerusalem Studies at Al Quds University was once again involved in organizing walking tours around the Old City while another Ramallah partner was the International Art Academy, Palestine. 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.

There were also concurrent activities running throughout the Show including Youth Visions of Jerusalem, an exhibition of new media art projects made by Al Ma'mal workshop participants at Bethlehem Peace Center and architectural trails organized by the Riwaq Biennial which took visitors to important heritage sites in Birzeit, Taybeh, Hebron and Galilee.

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.

Jerusalem Syndrome - The Jerusalem Show 2009
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.

Performance: Basel Abbas + Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Tarek Atoui, Phil Collins, Dora Garcia, Suheir Hammad

Sound Project: curated by Federica Bueti in collaboration with RAM, Radio Arte Mobile, Rome (Italy)
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

How I Have Missed You
Film Program I co-presented with ArteEast, curated by Rasha Salti
Films by Maher Abi Samra, Ghassan Salhab, Mohamed Soueid and Akram Zaatari

We Are Never Heroes
Film Program II curated by Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili
Films by Johan Grimonprez, Annemarie Jacir, Mustafa Abu Ali, JeanLuc Godard, Elia Suleiman

Walks & Tours in Jerusalem
Organized by the Center for Jerusalem Studies Al Quds University

Collaborating institutions
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.

Sponsors and Supporters
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.

The Jerusalem Show 2008

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:

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

 

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.

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.

THE FIRST JERUSALEM SHOW - 2007

 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)  

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.

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:

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.

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).

And pull it together they did. The first Jerusalem Show titled Outside the Gates of Heaven 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:

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).

Naoko Takahashi

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.

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 Sydost 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 A Memory for Forgetfulness at the Palestinian National Theatre.

There was also a special concert screening called Entry Denied. 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.

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:

….. 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)

For full participant list please click here: 

THE JERUSALEM SHOW