In/Scene is a video-art exhibition that features Mona Hatoum, Khalil Rabah, Taysir Batniji, Oraib Toukan, Jumana Emil Abboud, and Mohammad Musallam. Each of the featured artists works with video as part of a wider practice that includes installation, performance, and sound. In this exhibition the artists present thought-provoking works that challenge the boundaries of artistic categories and test the limits of what art can do, illuminating the political, social, and cultural forces that have shaped it.
The overriding themes that connect the works on display include displacement, exile, memory, identity, representation and home. The subject of home figures prominently in Mona Hatoum’s video-art work Changing Parts. Hatoum contrasts the highly ordered intimate space of her parents’ bathroom in Beirut with the dangerous breakdown of public order during the Lebanese civil war. The calm and ordered sanctuary of her parents’ bathroom, accompanied by Bach’s sombre Fourth Cello Suite, is disrupted by images from Under Siege in which the artist is trapped in the polythene box and struggles to escape from the container. Hatoum uses her body to explore notions of violence, oppression, confinement, and displacement. In Changing Parts, home is an object of longing and a kind of prison at the same time.
In The Pomegranate, Jumana Abboud films herself as she tries to put all the seeds back into a pomegranate, which causes them to burst, leaving her hands covered with red juice. The seeds are displaced, and any effort to return them to their shell is futile, suggesting metaphorically that a return to the past is impossible.
The silent projection in Bruit de Fond by Taysir Batniji conceals the tension and violence that has been experienced by the artist and by many previous generations in Palestine. The artist recalls childhood memories, which are interwoven with the present reality, reminding the spectator that there is no escape from the past.
Trying to Count Memories without Laughter’s Disruption is a two-channel video installation by Oraib Toukan. The work is a commentary on memory – especially the Middle Eastern memory – which has been accustomed to being raped, eradicated, and dispossessed of its rights before it shifts from present to past.
In A This and a That by Khalil Rabah, an olive lies on the ground; it is squashed. Another olive is squashed, and another, and another. At first sight, the repeated destruction of the olives suggests devastation; however with each squash of an olive we see an ant passing by – ants that are well known for their hard work and persistence, thus suggesting strength and resistance.
Finally, on display also is a work entitled Performance by Muhammad Musallam from Gaza. In this video, the artist tries to break through a curtain using his hands, legs, and body, but with no success. This is an indirect portrayal of daily life for Gaza’s more than one million inhabitants.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of screenings that showcase five thematic arrangements of video art by renowned artists.
Programme 1: INVISIBLE is a selection of video art that reveals stories from our everyday lives that are often ignored or taken for granted. The selection includes: A World Apart within 15 Minutes by Enas Muthaffar, Control Room by Mohammad Harb, Nervus Rerum by Anjalika Sagar (Otolith Group), and Tension by Rashid Masharawi.
Programme 2: RECALLING examines the nature of memory and how it contributes to our personal and historical knowledge. Films include Red, Dead and Mediterranean by Akram al Ashqar, A Journey by Lamia Joreige, Jerusalem HD by Ammar al Beik, and Meet Me Out of the Siege by Jessica Habie.
Programme 3: Expose is a selection of films that critique the West’s representations of the Middle East, Arab culture, and the Palestinian people. Featured films include Planet of the Arabs by Jackie Salloum, SBARA by Larissa Sansour, and Introduction to the End of an Argument by Jayce Salloum and Elia Suleiman.
Programme 4: Frame is a line-up of films that reflect the difficult and often impossible conditions of mobility for Palestinians. Films include Transit by Taysir Batniji, A Day in Palestine by co-directors Mary Ellen Davis, José Garcia-Lozano, Will Eilini, Around by Mohanad Yaqubi, Run Lara Run by Larissa Sansour, The Wall Zone Auction by Khalil Rabah, and 25 Kilometres by Nahed Awwad.
Programme 5: Buoyancy includes a selection of films that are characterised by their enthusiasm and experimental nature: Shopping in Ramallah by Shuruq Harb, At the End by Christian Bitcsh, The Beauty Gaza, Gaza the Beauty by Basel al Maqusi, Molokhia by Mohammad al Hawajri, and Rollescape by Mohanad Yaqubi.
Finally, special screenings for youth are available for schools. Yhey include two 40-minute programmes: Programme 1: Make a Wish by Cherien Dabis, Be Quiet by Sameh Zoabi, and Ricco by Mohanad Yaqubi.
Programme 2: Animated films by Ahmad Habash and ZAN Studio.
(25/11/2008)
For Further information please contact:
Palestinian Art Court – Al Hoash at
T: 00972 2 6273501
media@alhoashgallery.org
www.alhoashgallery.org
ArtVideo, Danse, Painting, design... Everything is happening now in North Africa and Maghreb. That page is a compilation of Contemporary Arts and Artists from Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Algeria and Mauritania.
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