In exile - tangible memories
Steve Sabella: “Jerusalem has witnessed many occupations, but access to the city over the last 58 years has been worse than ever before. With the construction of the separation wall around it and through it, Jerusalem has become an isolated and lost city. A few years ago, the distinguished Jerusalemite artist Kamal Boullata, in an article about my art experience, pointed out that he considered me an “artist in exile” even though I lived in Jerusalem. This was indeed a ‘reality’ I lived in but was, however, unaware of. Today, I have realized that the entire city of Jerusalem is a city “in exile”.
Jerusalem has a distinctive meaning to Palestinians. When asked to, each one of us, undoubtedly, will have a different description of the city. For people who cannot visit it, or whose visit to it is limited to a tourist stay due to occupational constraints, or to those who have been denied the right of return, a certain image of Jerusalem dwells in their imaginations and memories. These, over time, become thoughts suspended and charged with emotion. They also struggle to come to light, and to reality. However, this factual reality is colonized and entrapped.
Hence, I would like to liberate and transform these imaginings and thoughts into visual images—that is, to create a photographic image from the descriptions of these various mental ‘images’ of Jerusalem as relayed to me by Palestinians from all over the world.
Their descriptions of their images will give us the opportunity to discover, and to experience Jerusalem in new ways. The imagination will act as an extra uncontrolled dimension where it will be the vehicle that will drive the thoughts of Palestinians in the world to every street corner in Jerusalem, in effect liberating it. It will be like an interaction of imagination, my imagination as an exiled artist from within, and the imagination of the exiled people from outside, which no walls can stop.
This endeavor, I hope, will stimulate ideas and emotions. It is intended for the resulting collection to be compiled and presented in a book of art entitled “Jerusalem in Exile – tangible memories” which will be edited by poet Najwan Darwish, with whom I often investigate questions on art, identity and life that surrounds our common ‘exile’ in Jerusalem. We hope the book will include valuable texts on Jerusalem and on the issues of belonging and home, featuring, among others, distinguished Palestinian artists and thinkers and intellectuals.
This experience of transcendence of words into images, of imagination into reality, will eventually create an art of celebration, of birth and rebirth, an art that will live and transcend boundaries.”
Invitation to all Palestinians living outside of the ”exiled city of Jerusalem”
What is the image of Jerusalem that dwells in your mind ?
Is there a particular image that takes shape in your mind when you remember Jerusalem? Try to describe this image in words, while being as specific as possible. Describe the visual details that are connected to this image—there are no limitations in length or form, express yourself freely!
Please do not hesitate to include any written texts or personal testimonies that might help complete your elaboration and description of your relationship with Jerusalem, or the issues of Exile, Palestine, Belonging, Home or any other related subject. A collection of the above texts will appear on this web site, and approximately 100 contributions together with the artistically ‘materialized’ images will form the book “jerusalem in exile – tangible memories.”
To me, Jerusalem - especially the Old City is one of the very few places I felt peaceful being in. On my last trip to Palestine in Summer ‘05, I visited Jerusalem several times with my father. We walked through the Old City … to my father, every corner in the Old City has a memory attached to it … I’ll share the rest later. For now, explore the mental images Palestinians have of Jerusalem. I don’t believe you have to be Palestinian by origin to share your own mental image of the city, ‘Jerusalem, or the issues of Exile, Palestine, Belonging, Home or any other related subject.’
Participations will be accepted for a period of one year - till May 2007.
