Anne-Marie Filaire - Artist in Residence 2004 / 2005

1. How did you first get involved with Al-Ma'mal?

I met Jack Persekian in Paris at the end of 2000. The year before I had began photographing landscapes in Palestine and I was presenting at that time, the exhibition, “Jerusalem Jericho Gaza”, in Paris. We remained in contact. In March 2004, Al-Ma’mal presented the exhibition “Deserted Spaces” (work done at the border between Eritrea and Ethiopa) and invited me to be artist-in-residence. It was a time of great tension, the construction of the wall was beginning and contact between the populations had broken down. It was at this moment that I began to record the changes in the landscape around Jerusalem, to note down and to photograph the landscapes in order to preserve the memory of the places. I continued this work over time, anticipating the next stage, confinement.

2. What were the main challenges of working in Jerusalem and Palestine?

Working in Jerusalem and Palestine meant a long-term engagement - confronting this violence and the necessity of acting as a witness to it. I must point out that I have always worked with the two sides, in Israel and also in the Occupied Territories and that my work is situated within this movement. It was an investigation of transfers, I didn't want to represent this confinement, but rather work within it.

What remains in the images is a spreading out of space while paradoxically the same space was closing in on itself. The description of forms and space of these frontier zones, above all acts as witness to the violence done to the landscape, and to the occupation and the destruction. The challenge was to keep the project going over time, to have the rigour necessary for the working process on the ground, as the landscape, under the grip of a strategy of occupation and confinement was constantly transforming. Following this, the challenge was, for me, to liberate myself from this 'time'.

3. What are your strongest memories of the residency / working period with Al-Ma'mal?

A very particular atmosphere, the emptiness of Jerusalem, the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas in Gaza, the spreading of the news of his death throughout the Old City and then the 3 days of mourning. The unseen violence. Working with Al-Ma’mal and having the feeling that you are at home, the necessity of putting the creation at the centre of your life, as a possible way out. Al-Ma’mal participated in this work over time as I returned twice for the residency - at the end of 2004 and again in 2005 to work on the ground.

4. Did the experience have an impact on your subsequent work?

This experience has been at the heart of my journey in landscapes and frontier spaces because it has meant a ten year in the field engagement. It is situated among other experiences, other spaces, other frontiers, other conflict zones within which I have worked around the world. But this experience has been the “fil rouge” (guiding line).

Anne-Marie Filaire, Paris, August 2010 

Luc Chery 2000 – 2003

In 2000 I took my son to the photography school in Arles where I met Luc Chery who was to become my husband in 2002. He came to Palestine and did projects with Al-Quds University, Bethlehem University and Al-Ma’mal (Huda Imam, Jerusalem April 2010)

Chery was involved with Al-Ma’mal for several years and conducted two workshops as well as presenting his own photography and exhibition projects:

The first workshop I did (in July 2001) was called "Jerusalem Ma Ville" and was conducted with Al-Quds University students in cooperation with the French Consulate and Al-Ma'mal. The aim was to lead students to a renewed appreciation of their city beyond the usual evidence on the surface.

Unfortunately no images of this project are currently available but in a statement written at the time Luc Chery wrote:

This photographic work was accomplished between September 2000 and May 2001, a date which marked the beginning of a new era of uncertainty and conflict: the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada. Although within the heart of a conflict, this collection does not show any picture of war or confrontation, however, the day to day life, attitudes and expressions unveil tension and darkness. The images of architecture we see tend to point to an unrelenting process of destruction/reconstruction or perhaps re-composition. So many buildings are themselves affected by questions of identity through patches, scars, emptiness and additions all strongly marking the uncertainty and fragility of any possible definition of the place (From exhibition statement, 2001).

Chery’s workshop at Bethlehem University in 2002 introduced young Palestinians to a wide variety of materials within the context of contemporary art, particularly the creative possibilities of working with recycled materials. This was consistent with Al-Ma’mal’s shift in focus for workshop content that had occurred in 2001 following an assessment of workshop results over the first few years.

Here, the aim was to introduce new relationships with scraps and material, alteration and destruction and then to rebuild autonomous artworks out of this process (Luc Chery, June 2010).

Objects and materials were collected from domestic and industrial waste according to their ‘expressive uniqueness’ and there were conceptual echoes of Chery’s previous workshop project:

Cracks and rips mark their status as objects that have been tossed about, split up and marginalized. Such scattered fragments can be staged in devices enabling interplay of shapes and allotting them a renewed credit. When rearranged, they become small autonomous worlds endowed with impermanence and flexibility. As they are assembled, the scraps and fragments interact in floating layers and suspensions, in crushed-down volumes, in shadows and transparencies where they find a new inscription, a new belonging (From workshop proposal, 2002).  

 

 

 

As Al-Ma’mal’s artist-in-residence in 2003 Chery presented a two-part exhibition called Les Habitats-Ode to the Refugee Camps. One series of photographs showed structures in Gaza’s refugee camps enclosed by cloth or plastic sheeting. A parallel series showed spaces in Bordeaux that had been specially constructed by Chery from discarded plastic, fabric and furniture. When the images were juxtaposed it was sometimes hard to differentiate between the two.

The project not only conveyed a sense of the confinement in the enclosed spaces of the refugee camps but also gave an empathetic picture of a people surviving by converting waste into a priceless commodity that provides shelter.
 

  

 

  

Luc Chery Website