2007 - Contemporary Art Museum Palestine (CAMP)

2007 was another turning point for Al-Ma'mal in several ways. The internationalization of the Foundation consolidated by Jack Persekian’s move to Sharjah opened up new possibilities one of which was CAMP - Contemporary Art Museum Palestine. This idea had slowly emerged as Al-Ma’mal accumulated its own art collection going back to the early days of Anadiel, and including works by almost all of Al-Mamal’s artists-in-residence over the years. There was no museum for contemporary art in Palestine nor was there likely to be one in the foreseeable future. Any idea that the Tile Factory might be able to house part of the collection continued to be thwarted by municipal and other absurdities.

The idea for CAMP first started to emerge around 2004 – 05. I thought through several questions - how can I safeguard these works, give them exposure, ensure conservation and guarantee their care without some permanent infrastructure or the know how of a museum? I concluded that the best thing to do was partner with existing institutes or museums. I was always looking for partners and trying to sell this idea to them

In the end I secured several partners and that is how CAMP was born although before this stage the whole conceptual level of this had been in my mind for quite a while. The project works beautifully on a conceptual level. It was a collection but in a Diaspora – Al-Ma'mal’s actual physical art collection but constantly mobile and never able to be shown in one place until some future point when we have the resources the infrastructure and the actual physical space to open a Contemporary Art Museum of Palestine. Another nice aspect of this is that some pieces don’t exist physically they have to be re-assembled like Jean Luc Vilmouth’s piece. (Jack Persekian, Interview April 2010)

This customarily innovative solution would reinterpret both the premise and the parameters of the museum as a national institution, while still reflecting its significance in terms of national identity. These ideas developed and by 2007 the CAMP project was outlined in concrete terms with a comprehensive proposal that included the following statement: 

We believe that a contemporary art museum must be a flexible, living organism, an expanding space that will facilitate the realization of cultural projects, empower creative individuals and avoid stagnation. Hence we envision CAMP's essence not as a physical place, but as a real and fluid entity, a nomadic site where dialogue, growth and experimentation are encouraged.

We would like to establish CAMP in a way that might reflect one of the core Palestinian experiences – displacement – without illustrating a political narrative. Moreover, we hope to transform CAMP's nomadic status, which reflects a tragic reality, into a lever for new opportunities, innovative thought and dynamic multi-cultural productivity.

Our project involves the biennial 'nomadic' movement of CAMP, its cumulative art collection and 'portable' structure, from place to place. CAMP will find a temporary 'home' under the auspices of a 'host museum.' The 'host museums' – located across the globe – will be invited to interact with CAMP's presence and to initiate projects and exhibitions. (Al-Ma'mal Proposal for CAMP, 2007)

Al-Ma’mal found an ideal partner in Charles Esches, Director of the Van Abbemuseum  in Eindhoven, the Netherlands (and co-founder, with Mark Lewis, of the international arts journal Afterall). One of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe, the Van Abbemuseum’s approach fitted perfectly with the rationale set out by CAMP. 

The [Van Abbe] museum has an experimental approach towards art’s role in society. Openness, hospitality and knowledge exchange are important. We challenge ourselves and our visitors to think about art and its place in the world, covering a range of subjects, including the role of the collection as a cultural 'memory' and the museum as a public site. (Van Abbemuseum website 2010)

The Van Abbemuseum has since become the first ‘host’ for some of the CAMP Collection and several works are currently being exhibited for the first time in The Politics of Collecting - The Collecting of Politics, part of a larger Van Abbemuseum project looking at the museum in the 21st century.

Political Footnotes

As the apparatus of a state began to emerge, Jack Persekian also worked with the Palestinian Ministry of Culture where he set up a Visual Arts section and in 1996 organised ‘Among Artists’, a major exhibition in Ramallah of Palestinian work. Later that year he was appointed Director of International Relations and Projects and it was there he met Samar Martha who was to become the sixth founder member of Al-Ma’mal.

Although the situation on the ground changed very fast after Oslo, for a short period there were joint cultural projects between Palestinians and Israelis. In 1997 Anadiel was included in the the 'Mobile Seminar' project involving a group of 28 Palestinians and Israelis committed to the arts and to cultural co-operation projects in the wake of Oslo. The 'Mobile Seminar' was an intensive two day study and discussion tour in which the group travelled around the West Bank and Israel visiting key cultural centres.

For another project Anadiel hosted an exhibition on the theme of ‘Home’ featuring the work of Palestinian and Israeli artists. This exhibition was part of a wider project ‘Sharing Jerusalem’ in which the focus was the future of the city as the capital of two states. Israeli and Palestinian academics, intellectuals and activists held a series of symposia on the potential for the city’s shared future and organised special city walking tours. A second exhibition called ‘Down with the Occupation’ involving international as well as local artists was also part of the project. However, in an indication of where things were really heading, no gallery in West Jerusalem was willing to host it. The exhibition had to be held at the Al Wasiti Art Centre in East Jerusalem instead.

At this stage the search for venues, events and exhibition opportunities abroad intensified. Through contacts established by the gallery, Persekian discovered that the prospects of securing small amounts of financial assistance for art projects were higher if they had an international dimension. This discovery consolidated three core ideas: hosting foreign artists in Palestine, initiating exchange programs and placing Palestinian artists in residencies abroad. It was obvious that contacts with the international art scene and exposure to a huge variety of ideas and experiences could re-energize the young generation of Palestinian artists and provide fertile soil for jumpstarting the local art scene. Another factor motivating the gallery to involve international artists more deeply was the deteriorating situation on the ground:

As Jerusalem became more and more constricted, I felt this surging need to let the world in, so new blood could be injected into the local scene. The artists' interest in a dialogue with an environment, a situation, combined with my enthusiasm for a visual/conceptual discourse with the place, the people and the politics provided the ingredients for realising works addressing social, political and humanistic issues from firsthand experience. (Interview, 2005)