Contents:
1. this Tuesday -- RadioActive -- Jack Persekian
2. excerpt from " A Diary of Disorientation" by Jack Persekian
3. some links and reviews
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1. Tuesday Night 09.09.03--7:30 pm--RadioActive-- Jack Persekian
Almost a year now since we started the RadioActive series, posing questions regarding culture in relation to the "state of security" and the shrinking of civil liberties. This week we are happy to invite Jack Persekian, Founder and director of Anadiel Gallery and Al-Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem.
He Curated several local and international exhibitions: Including the exhibitions "Home" in Jerusalem and "DisORIENTation" in Berlin, he also directed and produced the millennium celebrations in Bethlehem.
In the discussion we hope to discuss practice(s) and possibly strategies of cultural resistance under the occupation, the question and the problematics of representation: to have to represent artists from Palestine, or the so called middle east. What are the responsibilities of a curator within this frame (of an exhibition for example).
"Is there such a thing as contemporary Arab art? What does the term Arab mean to us today? How severely have the attacks of 11 September shaken our perception of the Arab world? The DisORIENTation exhibition examines old and current views of the Orient, which have become topical again since 11 September. In the exhibition thirteen Arab artists give individual answers to attempts at collective generalisation. They want neither to be representatives of a national art - which continues to be cultivated in their countries - nor to allow themselves to be marginalised into the ethnic ghetto of exoticism and differentness. What unites their works in their singularity is the attitude "to resist and fight stereotyping and consequent death of genuinely living things", writes the curator of the exhibition Jack Persekian, who lives in East Jerusalem." (absolutearts.com see below for exact link)
http://www.16beavergroup.org/radioactive/series.htm
http://www.16beavergroup.org/radioactive
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2. excerpt from " A Diary of Disorientation" by Jack Persekian
for the full text please go to
http://www.16beavergroup.org/journalisms/archives/000449.php
Sunday, August 18, 02
(...)
In Beirut I met with several local artists I had become acquainted with on previous occasions. Walid Sadek, reproductions of whose work I had seen and admired, was the only person that I was meeting for the first time. Walid, however, seemed to have reservations about participating. His reluctance would persist, even after our October gathering in Berlin and he eventually sent me an unequivocal message declining to take part in the show. He did promise to consider doing so on another occasion. This was a big disappointment to me. The comments he made during our discussions in Berlin were most interesting and I found the concept he proposed extremely thought-provoking. The proposal highlighted certain problems that dogged the project of Modernity and which loom even larger over aspects of a belated multi-culturalism and tired post-modernism.
Walid made a point of emphasizing the purport of the inscription at the entrance of the House of World Cultures: the words of Benjamin Franklin loudly proclaiming a time when any philosopher will be able to go anywhere on this earth and say: "This is my country". For Walid, these words spoke eloquently, albeit hyperbolically, of a nascent and ambitious Modernity, itself a project which posited, in spite of many contradictions, the future subject of a universal civic society. Franklin's words decorated the entrance to the Kongresshalle, the same building which now stands on the vague terrain of multi-culturalism in the shape of the House of World Cultures.
True, the Kongresshalle of the 1950's was also an American post on the front lines of a lengthy Cold-War, yet for Walid, Franklin's words have resonance. Not as a reminder -- nor even a receptacle of -- a viable nostalgia but rather as a gentle warning that this building is no longer capable of carrying itself, let alone its German staff, European visitors and other exhibitors. The waning of Modernity as a project is our predicament, and it is our responsibility to think it through. The Modernity which Enrique Dussel reminds us: "is not a phenomenon of Europe as an independent system, but of Europe as center"1, is what makes us visitors from the third world equal in despair and in contribution, to our German and European hosts.
Should we not then, said Walid, close the building, shut it down for the length of the exhibition, and present our thoughts and works in the profane space outside and in front of the temple/house/halle. In that outside space we might recognize that we are all equal, and all need to prove our potential worth in a bid to belong to this world, to reclaim its inherent value.
(...)
Thursday, August 22, 02
I struggled to concentrate during the brief Beirut meeting with Lamia, because I was preoccupied with how I would enter Syria. Did I need a visa or not? Would the Syrian border official find out that I had actually come from Jerusalem? What would happen if he did? How could I possibly cross the borders without arousing suspicion?
I asked friends in Beirut their opinion of how risky it would be to just take a taxi to Damascus. Most of them discouraged me unequivocally, some warning me of the consequences should I get caught. Eventually it occurred to me: I am an American citizen after all; why not call the U.S. embassy in Beirut and get official information as to the realities of, and rumors about, travel to Syria. I was told that I did indeed need a visa to Syria, but that there was no way for me to obtain one in Beirut. Why? because there is no Syrian embassy in Lebanon (there would appear to be no need for one). This meant I had to fly to a nearby neutral country such as Cyprus, and apply for a Syrian visa from there. But going to Limasol and waiting for a visa to be issued there was a risk I could not afford, especially since there was no guarantee that this would ever actually happen.
To read more:
http://www.16beavergroup.org/journalisms/archives/000449.php
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3. some links and reviews
http://www.art-omma.org/issue9/feature.htm#7
The DisORIENTation exhibit calls into question old and current orientalisms and images of the Orient which have recently gained currency.
13 Arab artists from different Middle Eastern and European countries seek individual answers to the attempt at collective definition from outside. They see themselves neither as representatives of a "national art" - heavily cultivated in their countries - nor do they let their Western audience thrust them into the ethnic ghetto of exoticism and otherness. They confront the desires and prejudices of political voyeurism with a radicalness that makes all conventional categories obsolete. They also take a critical view of their own participation in the project:
"Is there such a thing as contemporary Arab art? What does 'Arab' mean, anyway - for Arabs, on the one hand, and for Europeans on the other? And finally: how to explain the international art market's interest - or disinterest - in contemporary Arab positions?" What unites these works in all their singularity is the determination "to resist and fight stereotyping and consequent death of genuinely living things", as Jack Persekian writes; the curator of the exhibit, he lives in East Jerusalem.
A number of in-situ works will be created for the exhibit. They will also reflect the conditions under which images from the so-called "Arab world" are transmitted and perceived. The artistic positions will be discussed in workshops and co-productions with various Berlin-based partners, and the process character of the project will be illuminated. Furthermore, various artist lectures on March 23, from 2-7 p.m., will involve viewers in a direct confrontation with the works shown and encourage discussion with the artists.
With works by Jumana Emil Abboud (Jerusalem), Jananne Al-Ani (London), Lara Baladi (Cairo), Roza El-Hassan (Budapest), Susan Hefuna (Düsseldorf/Cairo), Ali Jabri (Amman), Lamia Joreige (Beirut), Moataz Nasr (Cairo), Walid Raad (Beirut/New York), Khalil Rabah (Ramallah), Salah Saouli (Berlin/Beirut), Ahlam Shibli (Haifa), Akram Zaatari (Beirut).
http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2003/03/21/30857.html
(...)
http://www.gallardo.net/gen-t/disorientation.htm
disorientation review
http://j.parsons.edu/~tamars/thesis/biblio.html
Badran, Anne. Golan, Dafna. Persekian, Jack. "Sharing Jerusalem". Jerusalem, 1997.
This book documents the June 1997 Sharing Jerusalem events organized by the Jerusalem Link - a joint venture of Bat Shalom, an Israeli women's peace organization and the Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's organization. The two weeks of events focused on promoting the idea that Jerusalem can serve as the capital of two sovereign states: Palestine and Israel. The exhibition "Home" at Gallery Anadiel in East Jerusalem was curated especially for the event. In one of a series of essays in this book, the co-curator of Home, Jack Persekian, a Palestinian political and cultural activist, describes the concept of the exhibition and the process of its creation. Home deals with political and personal aspects of the concept of home, in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (such as occupation, evacuation, and "homeland").
The artwork of Palestinian and Israeli artists, including video, installation, sculpture and photography based on everyday objects and materials of the home, was used to "furnish" the gallery space and transform it into a devised domestic setting. The juxtaposition of the artists' projects into a domestic whole created a larger, metaphoric installation. It aims to undermine the shelter and comfort functions of the home and emphasize the effect of political turmoil on the relationship with the home and the perception of "everyday, normal" life.
http://www.jmcc.org/media/report/99/Feb/3b.htm
Al-Mamal Foundation: The revival of cultural life in East Jerusalem
by: Fanny Germain
IIn 1997 al-Mamal Foundation for Contemporary Art was established, a non-profit cultural organization based in the Old City of Jerusalem. "The main idea," explains its director Jack Persekian, "is to revive cultural life in East Jerusalem in connection with the community." Indeed, it seems that the Arab community in the Holy City has been losing sight of its artistic soul over the years, isolated as it is by its contended political status. Fifty years of occupation have left many places deserted or neglected to the detriment of Palestinian cultural richness. In order to carry out its mission of public interest and provide a forum for Palestinian visual arts, al-Mamal supports three activities to enhance cultural life.
http://alc-art.co.il/home/home.html
Curators: Gannit Ankori, Jack Persekian
Exhibited in: Anadiel Gallery, East Jerusalem, 1997
This exhibition of Palestinian and Israeli artists presents sculptures, installations, video art and photographs that are based on, or evoke, the domestic domain. In these works, mundane materials and every day objects of the home acquire metaphoric meaning as the gallery metamorphoses into a home, whose sheltering and comforting function is undermined. Rather than bestowing a sense of belonging and warmth, seemingly familiar furniture, ustensils and garments become dysfunctional, unfamiliar, threathening, unheimlich. The unsettling quality of this "home" and the sense of instability it evokes clearly relate to the atmosphere in the troubled "homeland" shared by the artists. Thus, the profound personal quality of the artworks in this show attains broader political significance.
published in: Sharing Jerusalem, edited by: Amneh Badran, Daphna Golan and Jack Persekian, 1997
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~mesoc/text/beth2000.htm
screening bethlehem 2000
http://www.jqf-jerusalem.org/2002/jqf16/photo.html
photography workshop
http://www.usaid.gov/wbg/headline_84.htm
children workshop
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