[-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour
larissa sansour
lsansour at hotmail.com
Sun Feb 6 06:24:37 EST 2011
Thanks Timothy for your feedback. I’ll start by
addressing your second question.
I mentioned the collective unconscious
understanding in my work in relation to terminology often used in the media
without much indication of critical reflection – or maybe the opposite is
exactly true: that critical reflection is indeed there and that the choice of
terminology therefore reveals a tacit agreement with the political intentions
conveyed. In any case, when it comes to the crisis in the Middle East, the
terminology adopted – whether it’s for reasons of ideology, diplomacy or
ignorance – often leads to an inadequate understanding by the public of the
actual situation on the ground.
For example, a term such as ‘conflict’ is
misleading as it suggests equality of power on both sides rather than a
clear-cut occupation enforced by one of the biggest armies in the world. The
‘security fence’ is another misleading term employed in an attempt to
camouflage the by no means purely defensive purposes of this piece of
architecture. In reality, Israel’s
‘security fence’ is more of a land grab tool as well as an apartheid wall, used
to separate Israelis from Palestinians and Palestinian towns from other
Palestinian towns.
There are obviously many more examples of
such terminology used in covering the Middle East crisis that ends up building
a picture for people outside of Palestine far removed from what the actual
situation is. Of course, you can see a side of this same pattern being
repeated more or less in news coverage of events in Egypt.
In your first question, you mention a
possible paradox. I don’t think there is one. The Palestinian experience is
very much linked to migration and displacement. To single out, say, only those
who live in Palestine as better representatives of what it means to be
Palestinian, would paint a very incomplete picture.
Many Palestinian refugees are still
considered stateless in the countries they fled to while others are not
integrated or granted proper rights in others.
The Palestinian psyche is a troubled one. Many Palestinians see
themselves as citizens in flux, regardless of where they live, waiting for the
right to return home. In that way, the
Palestinian diaspora is as central to the Palestinian identity as are those who
live in Palestine. One must not forget that many Palestinians are refugees in
Palestine itself and are waiting for the day when they can go back to their
towns and cities of origin.
On an autobiographical note, I myself was
born in East Jerusalem and grew up in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. My first
language is Arabic. I was forced to leave Palestine at the age of 15 when the
first Intifada broke out. Even though I have lived abroad ever since, I have
never seen myself as an observer from a distance, from somewhere outside of some
sort of more genuine Palestinian context.
Until recently, I had no other documents
than my Palestinian passport and Palestinian ID (issued by the state of Israel)
and that of course very much influenced my sense of belonging or lack of, in whatever country I lived or worked
in. Perhaps this is also what separates geography from identity in my
understanding. Many Palestinians that live abroad live secret lives hiding the
fact that they are Palestinian – in order to avoid harassment or a
confrontation with the stereotypical perceptions that many carry towards
Palestinians. In a sense that also informs their identity.
I make most of my work in Palestine as I
think it is very important to document the reality on the ground there, where a
lot of effort by Israel has been made to erase Palestinian history and culture
reinforcing a longtime Zionist rhetoric of ‘a land with no people for a people
without a land’. Whenever I go back to Palestine, I am subjected to the same
humiliating treatment and human rights violations that the Israeli government
forces on any Palestinian no matter what your country of residence, what other
foreign passports you are holding or whatever social class you belong to. In
Israel’s understanding, once a Palestinian, always a Palestinian.
Larissa
> Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 14:28:04 -0500
> To: empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> From: tcm1 at cornell.edu
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour
>
> >Thanks ever so much for this provocative
> >introduction, Larissa. It's fantastic to have
> >your subtle practice introduced as a productive
> >framework of this month's consideration of "New
> >Media and the Middle East."
>
> > I'm particularly taken by the paradox of your
> >work's emphasis on "geopolitics" where, in your
> >case, you are creating art from outside of the
> >geographic center upon which you reflect. I'm
> >wondering whether you'd be willing to say more
> >about that paradox, or is the geopolitical
> >condition of "refugee" and "immigrant" now so
> >ontologically central to a Palestinean-based art
> >practice that there would be no need to speak of
> >a paradox at all?
>
> Similarly fascinating is your emphaiss on a
> "collective unconscious understanding of the
> crisis of the Middle East." Given how much our
> -empyre- subscribers have probably been touched
> by events in Egypt and Syria over the past weeks,
> perhaps we might all reflect on your sense of
> such a "collective unconscious.," if you wouldn't
> mind elaborating on this. I'm wondering whether
> you understand there to be geopolitical limits to
> the availability of such a collectivity? Put
> another way, how might you understand "Happy
> Days" or "Space Exodus" in relation to the events
> now unfolding in the Middle East?
>
> Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
>
> Tim
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >Thank you Renate and Tim for inviting me to be
> >part of this exciting month of discussions.
> >
> >Below is a short text about my work. For visuals
> >and more information about my work, please visit
> >my website: www.larissasansour.com
> >
> >Larissa
> >
> >The dichotomy of belonging to and being removed
> >from the very same piece of land - be it
> >physically, mentally, administratively,
> >militarily or otherwise - is central to my work.
> >
> >While ordinary understandings of identity are
> >linked to the idea of belonging to some kind of
> >geographical unit - a region, a land, a country
> >- for most Palestinians, the experience of being
> >removed, exiled or cut off from the very same
> >place they belong to and identify with is just
> >as crucial for their self-understanding. In my
> >work, the notion of belonging manifests itself
> >in anything from architecture, ownership and
> >geography to social relations, local produce and
> >gastronomy. In contrast, tangible restrictions
> >on mobility - walls, fences, checkpoints -
> >maintain a permanent sense of being cut off,
> >uprooted and kicked out.
> >
> >
> >
> >In my artistic practice, I investigate critical
> >strategies of resistance to the Israeli
> >occupation of Palestine and to clichés that are
> >present both in the world's understanding of
> >Arabs as well as in the making of art. My work
> >tackles issues such as terminology and its
> >effect on the unconscious collective
> >understanding of the crisis in the Middle East,
> >artistic agency and politics, representation of
> >victim and oppressor, the psychology of
> >victim-hood, race issues and Orientalism,
> >history and its documentation and the role of
> >art in engraving as well as subverting a
> >historical narrative.
> >
> >
> >
> >My work is interdisciplinary and utilizes video
> >art, photography, experimental documentary, the
> >book form and the internet. I try to
> >contextualize Middle Eastern politics and
> >culture within a more universal language related
> >to pop culture, film and music. References and
> >details ranging from sci-fi and spaghetti
> >westerns to horror films converge with Middle
> >East politics and social issues to create
> >intricate parallel universes in which a new
> >value system can be decoded.
> >
> >
> >
> >I attempt to create scenarios where the
> >Palestinian is no longer the victim, but instead
> >enjoys the same power as anyone else in our
> >media-driven, entertainment-led world. Works
> >like 'Bethlehem Bandolero', where I enter town
> >like the lone gunslinger of spaghetti westerns,
> >or 'Happy Days', which shows the military
> >occupation in a series of cozy vignettes, turn
> >the world upside down. The people who are
> >usually the subject of news reports and
> >diplomatic initiatives instead become the
> >commentators. No longer the underdogs, they
> >stand at the same level as the rest of the
> >world's media and power-players. The double
> >irony is that something is lost in the
> >translation to a more fluent, funny and glossy
> >medium. In doing so, I try to foreground an
> >unspoken absence. Smiling through its pain, one
> >might say.
> >
> >
> >
> >'Space Exodus' continues this line by
> >re-imagining one of America's finest moment -
> >the moon landing - as a Palestinian triumph.
> >Everything is the same yet with a Palestinian
> >touch, from the details of embroidery to the
> >curl of the space boots. Even the sadness that
> >pervades the film is not necessarily
> >Palestinian. Of course, the work reflects the
> >fact that Palestinians are in limbo without a
> >state, as their homeland shrinks like a spot on
> >the horizon. Yet the sadness of 'Space Exodus'
> >is also implicit in the contemporary reactions
> >to the US space program, from Kubrick's '2001: A
> >Space Odyssey' to Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' and even
> >David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'. The moon landings
> >reflected a widespread anxiety that, in leaving
> >earth, we risked never being able to return home
> >again. Yet because this anxiety is universal,
> >the pain of the real, forced exodus of the
> >Palestinians is doomed to remain a private
> >grief, forgotten by the rest of the world.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 12:19:33 -0500
> >> To: empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> >> From: rtf9 at cornell.edu; tcm1 at cornell.edu
> >> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour
> >>
> >> We are delighted to introduce this week's guests, Larissa Sansur and
> >> Isak Berbic. We're appreciate their willingness to agree to open
> >> this month's discussion of New Media and the Middle East.
> >>
> >> Isak Berbic (UAE) is an artist, writer and lecturer born in Bosnia
> >> and Herzegovina, at that time called Yugoslavia. In 1992 as
> >> Yugoslavia dissolved and Bosnia was under attack, he and his family
> >> became refugees, moving from Croatia, through the Czech Republic to a
> >> refugee camp in Denmark, and lastly to the United States. Isak first
> >> learned about art from his mother, father and brother. He studied
> >> Photography, Film and Electronic Media at the University of Illinois
> >> at Chicago. In Chicago, he practiced art, worked in theater, and was
> >> art director of a political monthly journal. In 2007 he moved to the
> >> Middle East; United Arab Emirates, where he currently teaches media
> >> at the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah. He is
> >> a continuing contributor to numerous projects and publications on
> >> contemporary art. His research deals with histories, politics,
> >> tragedy, memory, humor, exile, and the limits of representation.
> >>
> >> Isak has exhibited internationally including: Thirst 2010, Bait Al
> >> Serkal, Sharjah Art Museum, United Arab Emirates; Dojima River
> >> Biennale 2009, Osaka, Japan; Singapore Biennale 2008; Jatiwangi Art
> >> Festival 2008, Indonesia; The First International Photography
> >> Biennial, Teheran, Iran 2007; Odavde/Otuda, From, Here/From There,
> >> Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, USA 2007; Normalization,
> >> in honor of Nikola Tesla, Galerija Nova, WHW Zagreb, Croatia 2004. He
> >> participated in the International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA
> >> 2008 Singapore, the Chicago Festival of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film
> >> 2006, Take a Deep Breath: an interdisciplinary symposium, Tate
> >> Modern, London, UK 2007.
> >>
> >>
> >> Larissa Sansour (UK) was born in Jerusalem and lives in London after
> >> studying Fine Art in Copenhagen, London, and New York. Her work is
> >> immersed in the current political dialogue and utilizes video art,
> >> photography, experimental documentary, the book form and the
> >> internet. Sansour borrows heavily from the language of film and pop
> >> culture. By approximating the nature, reality, and complexity of
> >> life in Palestine and the Middle East to visual forms normally
> >> associated with television and televised pastime, her grandiose and
> >> often humorous schemes clash with the gravity expected from works
> >> commenting on the region.
> >>
> >> Larissa has participated in the Busan Biennial in Korea, the Third
> >> Guangzhou Triennial, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, PhotoCairo4,
> >> Istanbul Biennial and Liverpool Biennial. Her short film, A Space
> >> Exodus, was nominated in the Best Short category at the Dubai
> >> International Film Festival. In 2009, her graphic novel, The Novel
> >> of Nonel and Vovel--a collaboration with Oreet Ashery--first appeared
> >> in Venice Biennale bookshops and was later launched at Tate Modern,
> > > UK, and the Brooklyn Museum, US.
> >>
> >> Welcome to -emypre-, Isak and Larissa. We're very much looking
> >> forward to learning about your work and to profiting from your
> >> perspectives.
> >>
> >> Renate and Tim
> >>
> >> Among the highlights of 2010 are solo shows in New York, Paris and
> >> Stockholm as well as the Liverpool Biennial.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Timothy Murray
> >> Director, Society for the Humanities
> >> http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
> >> Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
> >> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
> >> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> >> A. D. White House
> >> 27 East Avenue
> >> Cornell University
> >> Ithaca, New York 14853
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> empyre forum
> >> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> >> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> Timothy Murray
> Director, Society for the Humanities
> http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
> Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> A. D. White House
> 27 East Avenue
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York 14853
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
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