CURATOR
PRODUCER
EDUCATOR
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Rula Makram Khoury Kh_rula@yahoo.com | +972 54 4883527 | Haifa
Creative professional with extensive curatorial and production management experience. Project portfolio includes exhibits, symposia, lectures, film, and theater across Palestine and internationally. Passionate about Palestinian and Arab culture both contemporary and classical, committed to finding creative solutions to obstacles of identity and geo-politics, and a proponent of open and inspiring spaces for young artists and creators. Work Experience Head Curator Manam Haifa: 1 – 14 November 2014
Curated the first Palestinian art exhibition in Historic Palestine since 1948, featuring over 30 artists from across Palestine and the Diaspora. Multimedia exhibition, film screenings, symposium. Organized in collaboration with the Arab Culture Association and the Qalandiya International Biennale
Mapping Procession Ramallah: 29 October 2014
Curated Mapping Procession: Khalil Sakakini Culture Center street intervention piece as part of the Qalandiya International Biennale 2014.
Families Interrupted Adallah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Haifa: June 2013
Curated a photography exhibit by Jenny Nyman visualizing the reality of denied family unification under the Israeli citizenship law.
Extraction Point Beit Al-Carma, Haifa: June-September, 2012
Photography, installations, and video art exploring the “dispossession state”, a state which nullifies the other and empties her of her culture and history.
Various Projects Palestinian Art Court- al Hoash Gallery, Jerusalem Other Gaza, 2007: photography by George Azar
Cycle, from the “Women’s Thing” Program, 2007: Mixed media, promotion of Palestinian women artists and filmmakers.
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Rula Makram Khoury Kh_rula@yahoo.com | +972 54 4883527 | Haifa
Work Experience Manager
Artistic Director, Khalil Sakakini Culture Center, Ramallah: July 2013-Aug 2014
Curated new exhibitions every two months Managed workshops on art criticism, cinema analysis, film screenings etc.
Work Experience Educator
Project Manager, Lamsa Media, Haifa: 2011 Project Manager, Walkscreen, Berlin, Germany: 2007 Project manager for Challenging Walls, exploring the physical and metaphorical barriers of life in occupied Palestine. Academic Advisor, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem: 2012-Present Supervisor, mediator, and project manager for Palestinian students Lecturer (Aesthetics), Central Galilee College, Sakhnin: 2013 Lecturer (Art History), Nazareth College of Art, Nazareth: 2010-2012 Lecturer (Art History), International Art Academy, Ramallah, 2014-2015
Work Experience Film and Theatre
Publications
Assistant Director, Inheritance (2011), directed by Heiam Abbas: Jaffa Line Producer, Commercials for Beit Al Musiqa Festival and Montada Al Jansaniyya, Haifa: 2011 Producer and Coordinator, Checkpoint Rock: A Documentary by Javier Coicuera and Fermin Muguruza, 2008
Art critic for Inner Space, a weekly column in the newspaper Tervision: 2011-2012 Researcher, Palestinian Women Artists: the Land = the Body = the Narrative, Reem Fada, ed. Jerusalem: Palestinian Art Court- Al Hoash, 2007. Introduction Of Bashar Alhroub’s book “Nature Of Mind”, 2013
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Rula Makram Khoury Kh_rula@yahoo.com | +972 54 4883527 | Haifa
Awards Top Ten Best Youth Leader Projects in the World, International Youth Foundation, Baltimore and Washington D.C., USA: 2003 Education Haifa University, Haifa - 2011 Master in the History of Art,
Study interests: Promoting engaged active audience, British Video Art of the 1970s/80s.
Hebrew University, Jerusalem - 2005 Bachelor of Humanities, History of Art, Italian Language and Literature Other Relevant Experience
Languages
European Graduate School, Saas Fee, Switzerland 2011 - Development of “Museum of Contemporary Occupation Project� - Performance art workshops Palestinema, Member 2011 - Present - Association for establishing a Palestinian cinematheque in Historical Palestine - Screen independent cinema from across Palestine and the Arab World The Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland 2005 British Council Intern Scholarship - Curatorial studies- curated Perspective 05 , a multimedia international exhibition Arabic (Native) Italian (Intermediate)
English (Fluent) Spanish (Elementary)
Hebrew (Fluent) French (Elementary)
References Jack Persekian Director and Head Curator The Palestinian Museum Ramallah, Palestine jpersekian@palmuseum.org +972 (02) 2974797
Tina Sherwell Director International Art Academy Ramallah, Palestine tina.sherwell@gmail.com +970 (02) 296 7601
Eyad Barghuthy Director The Arab Culture Association Haifa, Occupied Palestine Eyad@arabca.net +972 (04) 6082352
Manam Haifa: 1 – 14 November 2014 Group Exhibition ACA - Arab Culture Association
Manam (Dream) - “Ha j: Don’t you see the horses carrying soldiers in the sky? - Woman 1: They landed on earth and were transformed into green and brown roosters; they started to fight each other. - Old Man: They are fighting each other so as to liberate Palestine. - Woman 2: Like Cain and Abel. Al-Manam, documentary film by Muhammad Malas, 1987
The personal Palestinian narrative often blurs the boundaries between reality, dreams, and illusions. The exhibition "Manam" is an attempt to document an alternative Palestine, one which lives in people's minds; it is an attempt to recreate a motherland in spite of the harsh reality that surrounds us. The title of this exhibition was inspired by Syrian director Mohamad Malas' the film Al-Manam , which was filmed in 1980-1981, just before the infamous massacre in Sabra and Shatila. The film, which was partially made in these two refugee camps, was not released until 1987. The film Al-Manam is composed of a collection of interviews with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon during the civil war there. Malas himself interviewed women and children, elderly people and militants, , asking them about the dreams they dream at night. By means of these dreams, the film attempts to explore the unconscious of the Palestinian refugees. There is a difference between imagining a thing's existence and between acquiescing to its truth. In the case of acquiescence, the narrative is not only entertained by the mind, but is held to constitute a reality. Belief is thus the mental state or function of creating a reality. 'Belief' thus represents the highest degree of certainty and conviction.
This exhibition examines the Palestinian mana, by exploring the dreams of individuals Whose memories of Palestine and longing for it have seeped into and shaped their nocturnal dreams. The line between reality and illusion are blurred in the unconscious to the point that when these dreams are narrated, it is almost impossible to discern whether they tell of a real or an imagined reality.As Carl Jung writes, "In everyday life one thinks out what one wants to say, selects the most telling way of saying it, and tries to make one's remarks logically coherent […] dreams have a different texture. Images that seem contradictory and ridiculous crowd in on the dreamer, the normal sense of time is lost, and commonplace things can assume a fascinating or threatening aspect [...] It may seem strange that the unconscious mind should order its material so differently from the seemingly disciplined pattern that we can impose on our thoughts in waking life. Yet anyone who stops for a moment to recall a dream will be aware of this contrast, which is in fact one of the main reasons why the ordinary person finds dreams so hard to understand. They do not make sense in terms of his normal waking experience, and therefore he is inclined either to disregard them or to confess that they baffle him [...]”
Manam
“Collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited.” C. G. Jung
“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.”
T.S.Eliot
The collective memory of a certain reality, becomes vague and vanishes. We live in an era in which we try to keep... a different reality. A dream is something that unites us all... Despite the geographical differences and dissimilarities in experience, the new generation is refusing the romantic dream that Palestine will someday be free. In despair, they struggle with the ugly truth.
Mustafa Al Halla j
Battle of Karameh, 1969 Masonite cut on paper, 50 x 70 cm
The memory that we hold on to The life that we try to survive The symbols we are stuck with The Palestinian narrative that is becoming a legend/myth You are still here Holiness/we are the masters of this land Suffocation/prison The question of Palestine The invisible portrait of a leader You are still here Our destiny aliens Hallucinations Innocent dream I feel nothing Breath Wounded Skepticism Ghost Don’t feel anything Master of this earth You are still here To Fight or to resign to nature? Closed Sudden death Deep sleep Coma Superstitions Our idols Identity confusion Memory Sweet Jail Return to what? Cold It ends up with the bitter utopian dream. We cover ourselves in symbolism in order to feel safe/comfortable... Dreams don’t lie, they bring out to the outside the things hidden inside... fears... doubts... hopes... sexualities... the surreal... the un-understandable.
Manam
Amer Shomali
Boy With A VHS, (2013) Acrylic on Canvas 140 x 100 cm
“ A false awakening is a vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep, while the dreamer in reality continues to sleep. A subset of false awakenings, namely those in which one dreams that one has awoken from sleep that featured dreams, take on aspects of a double dream or a dream within a dream. A false awakening may occur following a dream or following a lucid dream (one in which the dreamer has been aware of dreaming). Particularly, if the false awakening follows a lucid dream, the false awakening may turn into a "pre-lucid dream", that is, one in which the dreamer may start to wonder if they are really awake and may or may not come to the correct conclusion.� Green, C.
Haitham Charles
Faragh(void), 2014 Installation Photo: Rabia Salfitti
wisdom of the crowd Haifa 11 December 2014-28 February 2015 Group Exhibition Beit El-Carma
nonperson The reluctance to listen and zero tolerance towards different views generate the feeling that pervades the recent period: the individual's words are not heard, the indifferent and violent dialogue at time seems like a dialogue of the deaf and struggles for a change come across "the windmills". The very essence of tolerance is fading. Should we continue down this perilous path we will surely meet a catastrophic future, like a silent cancer that inches its way bit by bit until it takes over the entire body, leaving no healthy organs. This state of affairs generates reflections on the possibilities embodied in the formulation of alternative ways to give presence to pluralism in the public sphere. When you stop seeing or tolerating the person in front of you and understand their history, it is an act of erasing the presence of the other, who becomes a nonperson. The term "nonperson" (or "unperson", as it appears in George Orwell' dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four), refers to an individual whose existence is not recognized, and as a result lacks, loses, or is forcibly denied social or legal status, especially basic human rights. As someone whose existence has no documented record, the nonperson ceases to exist within the realm of "history", and is effectively doomed to oblivion (damnatio memoriae).
“Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one’s belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one’s right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.” Viktor Frankl
The process of an individual's exclusion from the realm of documented existence to the fate of a nonperson can be the result of several, intentional or accidental, chains of events, ranging from never having been sufficiently documented as existing, the loss or deletion of paper trail linked with the individual's life, a deliberate effort to erase any trace of a person's existence by the government or other bodies that have the power to alter such records, and an incorrect belief and legal documentation of that person's death. Nissreen Na jjar
Not for Sale, 2014 Digital print on Dibond, 140x90, sound
wisdom of the crowd
The status of "nonperson" can also be wittingly or unwittingly attributed to unwanted persons as a result of their demonization, a process that can be extended to an entire nation or group, as history have shown time after time. Labeling the other a "nonperson" or "nonentity" marks the escalation in any given conflict, and engenders new, more radical and extreme positions. Conversely, it also constitutes an implicit recognition in the rights of the individual deemed "nonperson"; an acknowledgment of the fact that he is entitled to the rights that any person should have, depending on context and social norms. How far do identities extend? How much can we alter an individual before he or she ceases to maintain their essence? Do identities remain intact even when a history or a memory of an individual has disappeared completely? "Their absence has spoken more loudly, and with more resonance, than their presence ever could have."
Michael Halak
Life in a Bubble, 2014 Oil on canvas, 40x50
wisdom of the crowd
In discussing the role of memory in the formulation of a shared identity of a group, David Lowenthal touches on the spatial aspect of this process (alongside the temporal tier, which is more readily associated with the individual's or group's memory). Linking memory and the identity of a group with the space it inhabits – which gives the group its endurance, but also draws its viability from the memories of that group, implies a tangled relationship between memory, identity and space, in which: "… urban groups may actually enact or be, rather than merely inhabit, the built urban environment. In other words, buildings are not expressions, symbols, or repositories of collective memory, but the latter’s physical process. The 'stones of the city,' as Halbwachs writes, are therefore not allegories for the stability of an urban population’s shared identity. In large measure, they simply are that identity." The exhibition seeks to pose a disturbance or disruption for the audience, prompting them to look at their surroundings from a critical awareness, question what is left standing and what has been removed and replaced by another, keeping in mind that “nothing that survives is wholly anachronistic […] every generation disposes its own legacy, choosing what to discard, ignore, tolerate, or treasure, and how to treat what is kept.”
Ashraf Fawakhry
Back to Black ,2014 Hologram print, 115x115
Mapping Procession Ramallah 29 October 2014 Procession Khalil Sakakini Culture Center
Concept: Lara Khalidi
The project is a procession in the city of Ramallah marking the first intifada which has withdrawn not only from the everyday Palestinian present narrative but also from the geography and cityscape itself. The project is also meant to intervene and re-appropriate public space and the citizen’s relationship with it. Working with a script writer, geographer and researcher the team will build together a script of stories, maps and resources for choreographers, composers and artists to work from/with. The artists will be asked to work on a set of exhibitions on the walls of the city from the visual culture of the first intifada as a form of signage for the procession as well as performances, while music composers will work with scout groups and musicians on new compositions, and the choreographer will be working with dance troupes on contemporary and folkloric dance. Those performances will take place during the procession where they work as a marker of either forgotten monuments of the first intifada or forgotten stories that were shared by people but seldom told. The project is meant to conjure a period in Palestinian history that was overlooked and perform its remnants by working collectively in creating sound and images that subtly relate to it. This project will be performed on an annual basis conjuring an event or a historical period that has been withdrawn in favor of others that serve the present political agenda and re-appropriating public space as a site of action that is not mediated by a regulatory force. This project is designed so that the public in the streets will be able to follow this procession by coincidence, just like any other celebration that happens in the city of Ramallah, by implication. This is not an event that takes place behind walls of the institution and works by invitation; it leaves the walls of the private space to go out in the city where people are going about their everyday business and involve them. The archive of stories, texts and images on the first intifada that will result from the research phase of the project will be available to the public and readership at to be read and used for other projects
Mapping Procession Photo credit: Hamody Shehadeh
Nardine Srouji Da’sat Installation
Mirna Bamieh
Prelude to a Unicorn Intifada Performance
families Interrupted Haifa/ Jerusalem Photo Exhibition Adalah
Through a series of anonymous portraits, this exhibition captures the reality of the many thousands of Palestinian families who are forced to live in the shadows by the Israeli Citizenship Law. By lifting the thin veil of anonymity that envelops them, the images give insights into how the ban turns them into families interrupted, struggling to lead a normal life together. By photographing them in their personal spaces, it offers glimpses of their day-to-day human existence as families. People living under the ban on family unification exist among us, often anonymously, their status frequently unknown even to close friends and relatives. Beneath the surface, however, the ban intrudes on every aspect of their lives, violating their most basic human rights, to family life, privacy, dignity, personal autonomy and equality. It encroaches on their most personal decisions: who to marry and where to raise a family.
families Interrupted
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (2003) prevents Palestiniansfrom the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) who marry citizens ofIsrael from obtaining legal status in Israel.It stops Palestinian citizensof Israel—the overwhelmingly ma jority of Israeli citizens who marryPalestinians from the OPT—from realizing their right to a family life inIsrael, based solely on their spouses’ national belonging. The numbers show that the law is totally disproportionate to the securityreasons cited by the state in its defense; instead, it is part of Israel’sefforts to maintain a Jewish demographic ma jority. It is a discriminatory,racist law that has no parallel in any democratic state. Since 2007, Israel has issued temporary family unification permits to a limited number of families, although most spouses from the OPT do not receive work permits and are ineligible for national health insurance and even drivers’ licenses. The permits are subject to security checks thatextend to other family members and can be revoked at any time. Thus the law prevents them from building a secure future for their families. The rest face a stark choice between separating, living illegally in Israelin a state of constant uncertainty, relocating to the OPT and living underoccupation, or, for those with the means, abandoning their lives and homeland and emigrating abroad.
A Fish, a Wish, and a Life Untold Ramallah 12 march - 10 April 2014 Joint Exhibition: Jumana Emil Abboud & Noor Abuarafeh Khalil Sakakini Culture Center
Water holds ancient symbolic meanings relating to the subconscious and depth of knowledge. Water holds endless mystery for us - it represents that which is certainly there, but cannot be seen. Transformation is a common theme in Fairy Tales, it is what makes them so magical. Animals are usually used to signify transformation, like the Fish.
“Alive without breath, As cold as death; Never thirsty, ever drinking, All in mail never clinking.” J.R.R. Tolkien
There are always many ways to narrate one single tale; some certain aspects are lost, changed or transformed when the story moves from one person to another and generation to the next. Fantasy wraps this work, since it stems from poetry and artistic techniques. Visually, seems as if the material is disappearing or dissolving, but, in fact, it is being disassembled and realigned in order to compile an alternate history which will breathe new life into these objects/material, thus - stopping them from being forgotten. Issues of Memory/Lost Memories reflect on the works of artists Jumana Emil Abboud and Noor Abuarafeh as they both examine the forgetfulness or selective memory of the mind/body/land; an examination necessary to their creation process. In our Palestinian reality, where the occupier snakes to destroy and alienate our memories, culture, identity, lands, rights and presence; loss of memories could also be an imposed reality, till we seize to feel and recall. This joint exhibition focuses on four common elements: “Storytelling,”“Impression/Reacting,” “Realignment/Reorganization,” and “Memory”. Through them, the artists seek to explore how using an archive material (such as storytelling, old photographs, and film footage) is a way of granting the moments captured another life and a new meaning.
Noor Abuarafeh
Photography of an Image from family archive, 1945\2014
A Fish, a Wish, and a Life Untold
Jumana Emil Abboud
I Feel Nothing, Video still, 8:09”, 2013 Screenshotzzzz from video
Jumana Emil Abboud
I Feel Nothing, Video still, 8:09”, 2013 Image from Cecil B. Demille, king of kings, 1927
A Fish, a Wish, and a Life Untold
Photos: Khalil Sakakini Culture Center (upper: Noor Abuarafeh, Lower: Jumana Emil Abboud)
nature of mind
Ramallah 5 December 2013 - 15 February 2014 Solo Exhibition: Bashar Alhroub Khalil Sakakini Culture Center
"To possess a dispositional property is not to be in a particular state, or to undergo a particular change, it is to be bound or liable to be in a particular state, or to undergo a particular change, when a particular change is realized." Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind, 1949
The solo retrospective exhibition of Bashar Alhroub tracks the artist’s work over the past four years. Alhroub’s artworks are multifaceted: while some are shown in public spaces others are displayed in specific locations, and the artworks use mixed media. His works are ma jorly self-portraits depicted over the years. “Nature of Mind” captures that moment when all things are considered as either evolving or dissolving into nothingness. This “nothingness” is not empty space; it is rather a space of potentiality. The white space that repeats in AlHroub’s artworks is a complete energy of light. It stands for wholeness and completion, and it represents openness and truth. Negative space forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used as the “real” subject of an image. Alhroub’s work has dealt directly with the polemics of a place, how to humanise it, and its influence on our creativity. He asserts his identity as essential and perhaps born out of those places. We all want to feel that we belong to a social and cultural community, constantly longing for a feeling of attachment and rooted in a particular place with a sense of significant ownership of that place. His work is deeply influenced by these socio-political sentiments. Questions such as “Who are we?” are often intimately related to the question “Where are we?” – so inextricably bound to defining our location in relation to self and others. His recent work has begun to engage with the search into the self, and he has therefore used the body as signifier. The work often shows threatened self-identity through the process of scrutiny and experimentation.
Purgatory, 2011 Video Installation, 6:08”
nature of mind
Photos: Khalil Sakakini Culture Center
Extraction Point Haifa 6 july 2012 - 18 August 2012 Group Exhibition Beit El-Carma
Extraction Point is a group exhibition which features photographs, Installation and video works. The exhibition addresses the term ‘extraction state’ or ‘dispossession state’, meaning, a state in which the other is nullified after he was conquered, emptied of his culture and distanced from his history. It offers “... a new kind of art. An art which can make the impalpable palpable, make the intangible tangible, and the invisible visible, in order to include it in people’s conscious reality” -Arundhati Roy
The disappearance, emptying, elimination and distancing of Palestinian culture and identity from everyday life are executed in a systematic manner, which gives a false sense that it is ‘the way of nature’: forlorn stones of ruined villages enveloped in Sabra plants or pigeons droppings scattered on the ornamental floor of an abandoned, sealed Arab house. Images of this kind highlight equivalent struggles, like the struggle between man and nature, or the struggle between the existing reality and its perception and interpretation. Society’s history and identity are founded upon the point of view and interpretation of the stronger side, a state that drives the weaker side, in this case the Palestinian minority in Israel, to create art as a means of reflecting the state of pressure, alienation and suffocation in which they exist as ‘inanimate objects’ subjected to a process of extraction. Many of the works exhibited in the show express a conflict between a powerful, larger side and a weaker, vulnerable, smaller side. For instance, nature that seems to take over the remnants of an Arab village in the photographs of Rabia Salfiti, the large scale funnel against the small bottle placed underneath it in Nardeen Srouji’s installation, the emblems of powerful countries alongside teddy bears representing naivety and childhood in Reem Qassem’s works and the traces left by pigeons, which are all that is left inside the empty cage in Mahmood Kaiss’ installation.
When several cultures exist in the same place they are found in a state of friction; in the circumstances in which we live, that friction brings about the gradual loss of the substance and elements comprising the identity of the Palestinian people, while the conquering people constructs a new identity for them. This identity created for the occupied people by the occupier is characterized by qualities taken from the weaker side for the stronger side, in order to serve its interests as though the other had already disappeared. That is the extraction point: the weak remains dispossessed and the stronger side underscores and extracts the qualities it wishes to project onto the other. Example to this dispossession can be seen in the landscape surrounding old houses while new and modern buildings are erected beside them or in the Falafel which became an Israeli national food and at the same time a prevalent association of the Arab culture.
Rabia Salfitti
Self Portrait, 2010 Digital color photograph, 50x67
Extraction Point
From the point of view of the dispossessed people, art is a way to try and establish its existence or presence in the space. Although the Sabra covers the walls of the ruined houses or the soldiers’ green uniforms match the mountainous landscape in which the barrier is stationed, there is a cultural resistance to attributing these symbols to the ‘way of nature’. Consequently, there is awareness to the dominant culture’s intent to draw the cultural attributes of the native culture while ignoring its existence in the space. In the words of Perec: “Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far. When nothing arrests our gaze, it carries a very long way. But if it meets with nothing, it sees nothing, it sees only what it meets. Space it what arrests our gaze, what our sight stumbles over”. The extraction or dispossession point is mentioned by many artists and writers around the world, who portray the negative interactions between cultures which have different hierarchical positions and are in situations of conflict. Thus, for instance, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy describes the post-war extraction state in her book “The God of Small Things”: “... And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we have both won and lost. The very worst sort of war. A war that captures dreams and re-dreams them. A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves”. Another different perspective is offered by Christopher Bollas in the book “Freud and the Non-European”, in which Bollas introduces Edward Said and discusses the psychology of the refusal to acknowledge the existence of the other and the effects of “negative hallucination”, which is: “not seeing the existence of an object or another. Thus in examining the structure of oppression,
Nardine Srouji
Injection, 2012 Installation: Tin, Glass and felt Dimensions: 300x300 diameter
Extraction Point
we must not only look at what the oppressors project into the oppressed (for example, Israeli violence projected into the Palestinian people), but we must also take into account a refusal to recognize the actual existence of this other (in this case Israel’s reluctance to recognize the existence of the Palestinians)”. The attempt to break that “negative hallucination” through artworks that are charged with emotion and message is part of the resistance to the “extraction culture” in the refusal to be an extract of forced cultural components. Extraction Point is an exhibition that addresses the resistance of the Palestinian minority to the Israeli cultural dispossession as well as the attempt to preserve and develop its culture and identity in order to survive the efforts to distort and eliminate it. After all, the small bottle cannot contain the contents of the funnel and its pressures, and the traces left by the pigeons divulge the fact that they had once inhabited the structure. In the same way, the daily images of vegetables and Halva made in Israel or the United States hold within them a history and identity of a people which is currently living through an “extraction point”.
Rabia Salfitti When Who Where Why Whom, no.1, 2012 Digital color photograph, 130x100
Reem Qassem
Suggestion, 2012 Ready-made & Video installation variable dimensions
The Peace Labyrinth
On conflicts, how they arise, and ways they can be resolved
Jerusalem Interactive Exhibition Bloomfield Science Museum
The Peace Labyrinth is an interactive exhibition first presented in the Netherlands by Peace Education Projects. The exhibition introduces visiting children and teenagers to issues, points of view and dilemmas that affect the course of interpersonal and inter-group relations. In recent years, various forms of the exhibition have been mounted in a number of European countries. A joint initiative by the Jerusalem Foundation, the Olivestone Trust and the Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem brought the Peace Labyrinth to Israel in a format relevant to the dilemmas and issues surrounding Israel and Jerusalem. In Jerusalem today, several organizations conduct informal education programs on the subjects of coexistence, democracy and tolerance. Some of these programs are designed for city schools and adapted to various age levels and educational values. The program activities are conducted in a number of forms, such as mixed-group discussions (Arab-Jewish, religious-secular), joint projects, and classroom activities—all of which acquaint participants with the "Other". The Peace Labyrinth weaves elements of these programs into one fabric and attempts to reach the population of fifth- and sixth-grade students in Jerusalem, providing the widest possible forum for addressing the issues at hand. Through involvement with its interactive elements, the exhibition enriches the experience of the visitors and challenges them to examine their views about the issues.
The Peace Labyrinth
On conflicts, how they arise, and ways they can be resolved
Goals and Objectives The exhibition has two specific goals: 1. To develop awareness of points of view, such as stereotypes, that influence us in conflict situations. 2. To provide creative tools for managing interpersonal conflicts. The exhibition is divided into four sections: 1. The Similar and Different – Getting to know the other and to understand that even though we are all human beings and similar to one other, each of us is special and unique. 2. Observation and Interpretation – When different people look at the same event, they sometimes see and understand different things. 3. Conflict Management – The visitors learn about different types of violence, discuss ways of minimizing violence at school, and acquire some tools for settling disagreements peacefully. 4. Communication – The visitors learn about the similarities between the Hebrew and Arabic languages and the importance of communication between human beings. They also learn about the basic rights to which every child and adult is entitled and about the need to respect these rights.
The Peace Labyrinth
On conflicts, how they arise, and ways they can be resolved
Activity Plan for the Exhibition Visits to the exhibition are conducted in three stages: 1. Preparation activities in the classroom led by the teacher. About one week prior to the museum visit, teachers will receive material from the exhibition staff. It is also recommended that teachers come to the museum for a preparatory tour. 2. Activities at the museum. The students are first gathered together for some brief activities (about 15 minutes in all) to create a productive working environment and generate interest in the topics at hand. They then move on to the maze-like exhibition area, which contains about 40 interactive displays. With workbooks in hand, the students work in groups of two or three to complete their assignments—all of which confront them with dilemmas and questions that arise in their everyday lives. Each group begins at a different display and completes all of the tasks within about an hour. The class then comes together for a summary activity. 3. Follow-up activities in the classroom. The goal of these activities, conducted by the classroom teacher, is to process the issues raised in the exhibit, according to the preferences of the students or the needs of the school or teacher. The teachers' manual contains a variety of suggested follow-up activities.