Art exhibition “Land, Peoples and Identities”

The International Center of Bethlehem celebrated the opening of the exhibition “Land, Peoples and Identities” on Thursday August 11^th. Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb welcomed the crowd and announced that the exhibition was not financed by any of the sponsors that impose normalization and quick peace, but it is a project that is initiated by Palestinian resources, carried out, managed and realized by Palestinian staff as well.

Participation in this exhibition was announced March 2005. Many application forms were received from artists living in the country and abroad. During June, a committee of experts was formed and chose 6 Palestinian and 6 Israeli artists. The criteria for chosing the artists was based on their creativity, the idea of their work within the theme and that they fully support the end of the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian right to self-determination and in equality of Palestinians & Israelis within a one or two states solution. After the deadline of submitting applications, the committee was still receiving many more application forms, some were very good ideas, strong expressions and very suitable to the exhibition topic. Therefore, the committee accepted 4 more applications, two from Palestinian artists and another two from Israeli ones.

So, at the end, the 16 participating artists were 3 Palestinians having the West bank identity card (I.C.), 2 Palestinians holding the Jerusalem I.C., 3 Palestinians holding the Israeli I.C. and 8 Israelis holding the same Israeli I.C. with no relation to their place of living.

The artists used several art mediums, different materials and various techniques to express their ideas and present their beliefs. They dealt with private and public issues, human and political.

Sami Bukhari, from Jaffa, presents photos for the remains of the cactus in Jindas villages.

This village is no longer there, however, at the horizon (of the photo), one can see the new additional buildings of the extension of the new Israeli Lod town. Bukhari is documenting the symbols of the remains of the Palestinians and the icons of their everlasting. However, Manar Zu’abi, from Nazareth, goes more personal and raises the issue of being “in Between”. Zu’abi presents a video work at one of the gallery’s dark caves. The work highlights the inner dialogue with oneself, about the condition of “in between”, which can be related to politics, place, body, soul, feminism, philosophy or existence….

Aida Nasrallah, from Umm el-Fahem, installs a thorny wire like the one used at the Israeli check points, all over the gallery and its two caves. Thus, she is making the mobility of the visitors more difficult and not normal. Nasrallah is talking about the difficulty of mobility and interaction between me and the other, and between me and myself….

Khouloud Abu-Sbaih, from Jerusalem, deals with the identity of Jerusalem. Through her work, Abu-Sbaih makes sure that the history of Jerusalem is much older than 3000 years old, which is the beginning of the Jewish presence in the Holy town. So, she presents 7 relieves, featuring 5 different historic periods, symbols and events, starting by the Canaanite period, then the Roman, the Christian, the  Islamic and finally the Mamluky one.

While Abu-Sbaih researches the ancient history of the land, Nadira Araj studies the modern history of the UN resolutions. Araj, from Bethlehem, presents to us the many and various UN resolutions that are related to our Land and our conflict in the Middle East. She presents them by using the playing cards, since it is all related to numbers and Jokers that are put in order one after the other, whether they have a meaning or a value!!!!!

Anas Dweik, from Jerusalem, also try to confirm the everlasting of the Palestinian People in their Land. He presents a huge ceramic relief featuring human figures merging into trees and rooting into the Land. The title of his work is “Trees die standing up”.

Samaher Romi, from Aida refugee camp, also uses ceramic as her medium. However, she is showing a three dimensional work of a container full of cut heads, with the word “Peace” carved on the sides of the containers. She is maybe questioning the honesty of this peace.

Vera Amar, from Beit-Jala, also raises several questions through her paintings. She is titling them with very critical issues; the Setting out, the Struggle, the Departure, the Breaking, the Future, the Return.

While the Palestinian artists were using different mediums and techniques, most of the Israeli artists were using photography, each in his own way.

Gaston Zvi Ickowicz, from Tel-Aviv, used his camera to capture a romantic, virginal landscape in which signs of expropriation, of settlement, and of occupying the land have been planted; a caravan, red-roofed houses, a playground, a road, shrubbery. 

Osnat Bar-Or, from Pardes-Hanna, also uses her camera as a critical documentation of the “Shomeras”. Shomera is a biblical term that relates to temporary structures in vineyards and fields and is used by farmers during fruit picking periods in order to guard the products against theft. Shomeras have been in use since ancient times by all types of farmers from different backgrounds and with different believes. However, the interest of Bar-Or is the different characters of the Israeli shomeras and the Palestinian ones. The Palestinian shomeras are decorated and built as a domestic area, while the Israeli ones take the shape of a military tower, manifesting power and control.

Hilit Leibler, from Tel-Aviv, presents to us her photos in a shape of a personal album. She is sharing with us her experience, feelings and photographic shots of the trip she made to the Palestinian villages and towns.  As an Israeli, Leibler is forbidden from entering the occupied Palestinian territories in the West-Bank and Gaza. However, in January 2005, she joined a workshop that aimed at acquainting Israelis with the lives of the Palestinians. The organized trip which Leibler made was part of the same workshop. In addition to the intimate photo album, Leibler describes her experience with “the others” in a very beautiful text.

Ronen Eidelman, from Jaffa – Tel-Aviv, also deals with “the others”, but, he represents them in a different way. Eidelman is very critical towards the Israeli Authorities. He made a poster of “wanted” children from Bilin village, the west side of Ramallah. Those children are very dangerous and threatening the security of the State of Israel, because they demonstrate weekly with their parents, against the confiscation of their land. Therefore, the Israeli Intelligence Department is persecuting them. As part of the same poster, Eidelman is giving very precise statistics about the land and the people of that village. It is important to know that more than half of the village’s land is confiscated for the sake of the segregation wall and the surrounding settlements, where the main family income was agriculture.  

Shakhaf Haber, from Tel-Aviv, exhibits three photographs, one featuring a landscape, while the other two can only be described as “critical”. In one of the critical photos, he is showing a model standing in Rabin Square and dressed in a strange skirt. On the skirt, there is the portrait of the peace maker Yaser Arafat with the words “NOBEL PRIZE” written under the portrait. It is as if Haber is questioning the accreditation of that prize, or the truth behind that peace, or the destiny of both peace makers!!!!!!!!!!! And many other questions….

Orna Neumann, living in England, proposes the idea of an imaginary project where she is inviting the worldwide famous artist Christo to take it upon himself to pursue a project that would invert the meaning of the Wall. An inversion that could be achieved through the use of the path of the 67 border – presently the mark of division and divisiveness – to fashion a transformatory zone, that would signal the unthinking of the Wall implemented. Neumann writes her invitation next to a very powerful photo showing a small boy going through a narrow opening in the endless Wall.

Lior Neiger, living in U.S.A., exhibits a video work that presents the Globe as a whole. Neiger is reminding us that it is not only the Middle East, but, there are many places around the world that are living under struggle. The video itself creates tension and inconveniency to the viewer as the image rotates and stops with different speeds.

Last is Yael Oren-Zalait, from Pardes-Hanna. She installs a mixed media work that hints to various aspects of the history of the State of Israel and what it granted for its People. She draws herself wearing general Moshe Dayan's cap, the architect who designed the 1967 war, at the bottom written "Ce moi qui regrete", meaning it is me who is sorry, who regrets, and who misses ( you ). She also draws an Olive branch, as it is used in the symbol of the Israeli state. On the branch, there are young men soldiers climbing up as if they are sacrificed. As part of her small installation there are other objects (a school dress and a periscope) and a manipulated photo that are not in their normal use. The periscope is very interesting since it allows an observation but without a discovery. The attempt to see the other ends up with seeing ones own foots; the place where one is standing…..

Artists are always forerunners and looking for the future. Therefore such a project is very important as it provides a democratic forum where free and open discussions are made between people of different believes and backgrounds about what is Identity and the relationship between the Identity, the Peoples and the Land. Such issues are so complicated that even politicians have difficulties to understand them. So, maybe when artists are dealing with these issues, they can present them in a different way for the audience, hoping that one day there will be a real and rational change.