+ bitácora arquitectura número 44 doi:10.22201/fa.14058901p.2020.44.77200 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

IN In 2001, and Rafi Segal won a competition to represent the Israeli Association of United Architects (iaua) at the 21st uia World Congress in . Over the next eleven months, they cataloged, classified and historicized the politics of the Israeli settlements in the occupied , paying spe- Interrogating Architectural Evidence: cific attention to how professional architects and planners participated. In the planned exhibition, The Politics of Israeli Architecture, they intended to display a series of maps, planimetric drawings and aerial Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal’s Exhibition photographs. The Israeli settlements were named weapons of civilian occupation and the architects and planners whose designs were complicit in helping achieve ’s political goals were said to be guilty of for the Israeli Association of United violating international law and basic human rights. After submitting the presentation boards, a steering committee canceled funding for the exhibi- Architects tion, its 5,000 printed catalogs were destroyed and the curators were threatened both professionally and legally.1 According to Weizman and Segal, “the strategic use of territory in the exercise of state power is well established…But merely posing the question of the responsibility and culpability of Israeli architects and planners within the context of the conflict, and especially in the construction of the Interrogar la evidencia arquitectónica: Jewish settlements in the West Bank, led to the exhibition being banned by the same body of archi- 2 la exposición de Eyal Weizman y Rafi Segal tects that commissioned it, the iaua.”

3D model of exhibition project with annotated details. Storefront para la Asociación Israelí de Arquitectos Unidos for Art and Architecture, 2003

investigación pp. 004-017 Michael Moynihan

Abstract In 2002, Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal organized an exhibition that was banned just before opening, its 5,000 printed catalogs destroyed. These curators intended to exhibit evidence of Israeli architects’ com- plicity with violations of international law and human rights. First, this paper examines reciprocities between architectural media displayed in an exhibition space and the way evidence is exhibited in a legal context. Second, the strategies of attributing meaning to architecture in this exhibition are compared to nineteenth century international expositions and panoramas. Keywords: media, representation, evidence, testimony, international law, international expositions, panorama, forensic architecture

Resumen En 2002, Eyal Weizman y Rafi Segal organizaron una exposición para la Aso- ciación Israelí de Arquitectos Unidos. Antes de su inauguración, la exposición fue cancelada y sus 5,000 catálogos impresos fueron destruidos. Los curadores querían exhibir evidencia de la complicidad de los arquitectos israelíes con violaciones a los derechos humanos y las leyes internacionales durante la ocu- pación de Cisjordania. En este contexto, el presente artículo se pregunta en primer lugar cuál es la diferencia entre exhibir arquitectura en un museo y exhibir evidencias en un contexto legal. En segundo lugar, compara las es- trategias de mostrar la arquitectura en esta exposición con las exposiciones mundiales del siglo XIX y los edificios panorama. Palabras clave: medios, representación, prueba, testimonio, ley internacional, exposiciones mundiales, panorama, arquitectura forense

04 05 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020 IDF ATTACKS ON HOUSES:

FAMILY KILLED: 15 OUT OF 142 AL BATSH KILLED:

FAMILIES IN GAZA FAMILY KILLED: AL QASSAS KILLED: FAMILY KILLED: SEVERAL IN AL DALI BUILDING KILLED:

FAMILIES KILLED: FAMILY KILLED: AL HALLAQ SHUHEIBAR & AL AMMAR FAMILY KILLED: FAMILY KILLED: KAWARE ABU JABR KILLED: KILLED: KILLED: KILLED:

FAMILY KILLED: AL HAJJ FAMILY KILLED: FAMILY KILLED: FAMILY KILLED: AL NAJJAR AL KILANI AND BALATAH KILLED: DERBASS FAMILIES FAMILY KILLED: KILLED: IN AL SALAM TOWER KILLED: AL SAYAM KILLED: KILLED:

FAMILY KILLED: ABU JAMR FAMILY KILLED: AL FARRA KILLED: Plan of Giv’at Ze’ev. Created by Eyal Weizman and Rafi Segal, 2002 FAMILY KILLED: DHEIR KILLED: KILLED: JABALYIA REFUGEE CAMP

GAZA CITY GAZA AL BURAIJ REFUGEE CAMP “I FOUND THE DECAPITATED BODIES OF MY UNCLE AND DAUGHTER. MY COUSIN WAS ALIVE BUT DIED ON THE WAY TO HOSPITAL. ANOTHER COUSIN’S BODY WAS FOUND SLICED IN TWO. WHAT I WITNESSED WAS KHAN YOUNIS ISRAEL HORRIBLE–MY COUSIN WAS NINE MONTHS This exhibition, of course, was not a court of law; however, there are reciproci- However, in the process of attributing a demonstratable connection between PREGNANT AND HER STOMACH WAS RIPPED ties between architectural media displayed in an exhibition space and the way an architect’s drawings — that is, the abstracted, codified architectural lan- OPEN AND THE UNBORN INFANT WAS LYING THERE WITH HIS SKULL SHATTERED.” evidence is exhibited in a legal context. In a courtroom — just as in a museum guage for organizing space and territory — to strategic and political agendas, — the prosecutor does not recreate the crime in real time and space, but architecture must be understood and displayed as a complex register of his- instead relies on the display of indices, representations, objects and testimo- tory, memory and identity. nies. It is not a bloody glove presented in a courtroom, but a link between the In 2002, this exhibition was part of a larger cultural shift. In the past IDF Attacks on Houses, infographic created to supplement the blood of the victim and the hand of the murderer. Meaning, in other words, three decades, there has been an increase in the use of architectural evi- historical events and the building is presented as “objective proof,” exhibitable in the court of law. As Report of the detailed findings of the Commission of Inquiry on is not held in a single displayed object, but produced through a polycentric dence exhibited in a legal context, particularly in cases dealing with the Weizman says, “The difference between a witness and a piece of evidence is that evidence is presented, the 2014 Gaza Conflict. Office of the High Com- missioner for Human Rights, 2015 network of objects and media. The exhibition organized by Weizman and violation of international humanitarian law. According to Weizman, this while a witness is interrogated.”6 Segal traces the connections between architects and the settlements, show- is at the requests of the courts, which, after a series of tribunals investigat- As mentioned by Weizman and Segal, what stood out about their exhibition was the suggestion of ing that architects are not just professionals working for a client, nor are they ing the genocides in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, gen- the guilt and responsibility of architects. Typically, when architectural evidence is exhibited, it is because passive actors in history, but that their technical expertise instead facilitates erally moved away from human testimony and towards medical data and of its destruction rather than its construction. For example, in a report published by the Office of the the needs and pressures of the modern Zionist project. Because this exhibi- forensic evidence.4 Weizman’s recent work has shifted towards the use of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the destruction of 160,000 homes, involving tion was curated for an audience of international professional architects, the the materials, structure and form of architecture as evidence in the court the death or displacement of thousands of families, was important to the investigation into violations agenda of the exhibition, in addition to bringing international awareness to of law. He now serves as the director of Forensic Architecture, an eu-funded of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of the military Israel’s settlements, was to call attention to the responsibility and public char- research project that conducts studies on a wide variety of scales, from micro- operations during the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. 7 In an infographic titled “idf Attacks on Houses,” created acter of architects. This is emphasized by Sharon Rotbard in the preface to the scopic transformations in the skins of buildings to the composition of piles of to supplement the report, the destruction of homes was linked to the lives of civilians, something catalog: “The politics of Israeli architecture is the politics of any architecture.”3 rubble.5 In this way, architecture is understood as a complex register of recent which had not been used in previous court rulings. This infographic was an attempt to delegitimize the

06 07 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

Jewish Settlements in the West Bank. Created by B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Ter- 1 Jewish Settlements Zububa ritories and Eyal Weizman, 2002

Ti'nnik Rummana Umm Al-Fahm Al-Jalama Arabbuna At-Tayba

'Anin Silat Al-Harithiya 60 Arrana Faqqu'a Bet She'an in the West Bank Al-Yamun Deir Ghazala Dahiyat Sabah Al-Kheir

Tal Menashe Umm Ar-Rihan Hinnanit Mashru' Beit Qad Kh. 'Abdallah Al-Yunis Dhaher Al-Malih Kafr Built- Areas and Land Reserves 'Araqa Beit Qad Shaqed Jalbun Rekhan Al-Hashimiya Tura-al-Gharbiya At-Tarem Barta'a Ash Sharqiya RC Jenin Nazlat Ash-Sheikh Zeid Umm Dar Kaddim 2 Kafr Qud Birqin Ganim Deir Abu-Da'if Dhaher Al-'Abed May 2002 Hadera Akkaba Ya'bad Kufeirit Qeiqis Zabda 'Arab As-Suweitat

60 Umm at-Tut Imreiha Jalqamus Ash-Shuhada 585 Mevo Dotan Hermesh Al-Mughayyir Al-Mutilla Nazlat 'Isa Baqa Ash-Sharqiya An-Nazla Ash-Sharqiya Bir Al-Basha Ad-Damayra An-Nazla Al-Wusta Telfit Arraba Mirka An-Nazla Al-Gharbiya Fahma Al-Jadida Ein El-Beida Misiliya Fahma Raba Zeita Seida Az-Zababida Zawiya Al-Kufeir Kfar Ra'i 60 Sir 3 Illar Ajja Anza Sanur Meithalun Shadmot Mehola Deir Al-Ghusun Ar-Rama Al-Jarushiya Al-'Aqaba Al-Farisiya

Sa Nur Nahal Rotem Al-Judeida Siris Tub as Netanya Shuweika Al-'Attara Jaba' Al-Malih Bal'a Nahal Bitronot / Brosh

Tulkarm RC RC Silat Adh-Dhahr Al-Fandaqumiya Nahal Maskiyot

Dhinnaba ' Homesh Ras Al-Far'a Kafr al-Labad claims of the Israeli Defense Forces (idf) regarding In these tribunals, there is little debate about the particularities of displaying architecture, the complexities Burqa Al-Far'a RC ' 578 90 Ramin Tammun Avne Hefez Al-Far'a

Far' un Kafa Enav Sabastiya Shufa 4 their targeting of civilian homes. In this case, the of architectural representation or the paradox of reenacting the architectural experience outside of its 57 Kh. Jubara Shavey Shomeron Al-Badhan An-Naqura Asira Ash-Shamaliya 57 Beqa'ot Ar-Ras Al-Aqrabaniya Ro' i idf stated that the homes were concealing tun- context. In scholarship focused on architectural exhibitions, these complexities have been well established. Tira 60 Elon Moreh Sal'it Kur 90 RC Al-Juneid Falamya Kafr 'Abbush Deir Al-Hatab nels, which shifted the meaning of the destroyed As Barry Bergdoll said in a recent anthology, “Nearly every lecture on the architectural museum or the Sarra Qedumim Jit Salim Baqa Tell RC Hamra Jayyus Zufin Hajja Kh. Sir Har Bracha Far'ata Marj Na'ja Beit Dajan Burin Madama 5 houses from places where innocent people architectural exhibition begins by rehearsing the truism that architecture can only be exhibited through An-Nabi Elyas Immatin Az-Zubeidat Qalqiliya 55 Ra'ananna Kafr Laqif Asira Al-Qibilya Kefar Sava Alfe Menashe Jinsafut ' Isla Itamar Habla Azzun Qarne Shomeron 10 Yizhar Huwwara Ma'ale Shomeron Al-Jiftlik Ras 'Atiya lived to a potential threat to Israel. Under previ- simulacra, substitute objects or representations.” Similarly, as Jean-Louis Cohen said in conversation with Immanu'el Hod Hasharon 'Izbat Jal'ud Nofim Ramat Hasharon Kafr Thulth Yaqir Al-Mudawwar Zeita Jamma'in Jamma'in Beita 'Izbat Salman 'Izbat Al-Ashqar Deir Istiya Beit Amin Sanniriya Qarawat Bani Hassan 60 Oranit ous court rulings, this harm to civilian property Denis Hollier, Rosalind Krauss and Yve-Alain Bois, “Exhibiting architecture is a matter of showing indices of 505 505 Aqraba Sha'are Tiqva Kifl Haris Qira Kfar Tapuah Revava Trans-Samarian Road Azzun Atma Ez Efrayim Qiryat Netafim Marda Massu'a Biddya Haris Yat m a Gittit 505 Yasuf Barqan Elqana 11 Barqan Industrial Area Regional Center Mas-ha Rehelim Sarta Ari'el Iskaka Migdalim 6 had been argued as being “proportionate” to the something which, when the work is built, is out there.” Both Cohen and Bergdoll argue that the exhibition Rosh Ha'ayin Az-Zawiya As Sawiya 5 Petah Tiqva Bruchin Ma'ale Efrayim Salfit Eli Majdal Bani Fadil Rafat 505 Ramat Gan Ele Zahav Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya Brukin potential risk these homes pose to the Israeli mili- of architecture is a unique problem, unlike the exhibition of sculpture, painting and film, because architec- Farkha 'Ammuriya Shilo Kafr Ad-Dik Qarawat Bani Zeid Kh. Qeis Duma Deir Ballut Pedu'el Deir Ghassana Mazari' An-Nubani Ma'ale Levona - Jaffa Peza'el Arura Shvut Rahel Bet Arye Kafr 'Ein Abwein tary. When the Israeli forces say they are targeting ture in its built form is already on display and any act of trying to display architecture in an exhibition space Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi Fasayil Deir As-Sudan Jiljilya Sinjil Turmus Ayya Beit Rima Al-Mughayyir

Ajjul Rantis An Nabi Salih 'Abud Umm Safa 60 Khirbat Abu-Falah Ofarim 465 buildings, rather than humans, the lives lost are (with few exceptions) can only occur through secondary (presumably inferior) forms of representation. Holon Hallamish (Neve Zuf) Gilgal 7 Ateret Al-Mazra'a Ash-Sharqiya Deir Nidham Kafr Malik Allon Road 'Atara 458 Valley Road Deir Abu-Mash'al Netiv Hagedud 90 Burham Silwad Shuqba Kobar Qibya understood only as collateral damage caused dur- To elaborate on this observation, Cohen used two French translations of the English word ‘work.’ The first Jammala Beitillu Nahli'el Bir Zeit Yab rud Shabtin Abu Shukheidim 'Ein Siniya Deir Jarir Kokhav Hashahar Nili Na'ale Dura Al-Qar'a Deir 'Ammar RC Jifna Budrus Al Mazra'a Al-Qibliya Rishon Leziyyon Al-Jalazun RC At-Tayba Lod Deir Qaddis Ein Yabrud Kh. Bani Harith Al-Auja ing normal military practices. was ouvrage, referring to the “real” built work, the thing outside of the exhibition space — in the case of Ni'lin Talmon Abu Qash Ofra Ras Karkar Surda Bet El Nahal Zori Hashmona'im Al-Janiya Rimmonim Modi'in Bil'in 'Ein Qiniya Beitin Rammun Ramla Mattityahu Shilat Dolev 458 In the book Weizman and Segal’s exhibition, the infrastructure, roads and red roof tiles of the Israeli settlements — and Kafr Ni'ma Violence Taking Place: The Archi- No'omi 8 Lapid Menora Deir Abu Ibzi Al-Bira Deir Dibwan Kfar Ruth 'Ein Arik Saffa Psagot An-Nuwei'ma Beit Ur At-Tahta Burka Maccabim Beituniya Al-Am'ari RC tecture of the Kosovo Conflict, Andrew Herscher the second oeuvre, referring to the project, the idea or the intellectual work. When Weizman and Segal Beit Ur Al-Fauqa 443 Kafr 'Aqab Kokhav Ya'aqov 'Ein Ad-Duyuk Al-Foqa 'Ein As-Sultan RC Beit Sira Bet Horon Kh. Al-Misbah Tel Ziyon Ma'ale Mikhmas Nahal Elisha Mikhmas Qalandiya RC At-Tira Rafat Sha'ar Binyamin 3 45 Jaba Giv'at Ze'ev Industrial Area No Man's Land Beit Liqya Beit Duqqu Qalandiya 458 90 wrote about his experience working with Andras intended to exhibit the Israeli settlements as evidence in a legal context, this distinction between work/ Al-Jib Al-Judeira Ar-Ram Allon Road Road Beit 'Anan Giv'on Hahadasha Atarot Dahiyat Al-Bareed Geva Binyamin Beit Ijza (Adam) Kh. Umm Al-Lahim Giv'on Bir Nabala Mevo Horon Al-Qubeiba Neve Ya'aqov Aqbat Jaber RC Almon Qatanna Biddu Beit Hanina Al-Balad Hizma Kefar Adummim 60 Riedlmayer on a Hague Tribunal investigation ouvrage and work/oeuvre lost its specificity: below, it will be shown how these categories were coexistent, Vered Yeriho 9 Har Adar Pisgat Ze'ev Nahal En-Hogla Beit Surik Ramot Allon Shu'afat RC Mizpe Yeriho Beit Iksa Al-Ka'abina Bet-Haarava Ramat Shlomo 8 Anata 1 French Hill Ramot Eshkol in Kosovo in 1999. The goal of this investiga- codependent and mutually defining. Mount Mishor Adummim Scopus 1 Az-Za'ayyem Industrial Area Almog Lido Yehuda Old City West East Ma'ale Adummim Jerusalem Atraktziya Water Park tion was to trace the deliberate and systematic The most prominent feature of the exhibition was the map created by Eyal Weizman with B’Tselem, Silwan Al-'Eizariya

Abu Dis 'Arab Al-Jahalin Qedar Qalya East Talpiyyot Jerusalem Landfill Beit-Safafa As-Sawahira ash-Sharqiya destruction of to the former president also known as the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. At the time Bet Shemesh Giv'at Sur Bahir HaMatos 10 Gillo Ash-Sheikh Sa'd Al-Walaja Battir Al-'Ubeidiya Har Homa Wadi al-'Arayis Har Gillo Ayda RC Al-Khas Al-'Aza RC of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević. For Herscher, the of the exhibition, this map was an up-to-date record of the settlement project. In the exhibition, the Wadi Fukin Dar Salah Juhdum Al-Haddadiya Al-Khadr Husan Beit Sahur Ad-DohaBethlehem Umm Al-Qasseis Umm At-Tal'a 60 Betar Illit Ad-Duheisha RC Umm 'Asla Bureid'a Ash-Shawawra Artas Khallet Hamad Avenat Nahhalin Beit Ta'mir Al-Khushna use of architectural evidence in legal terms only settlements on the map were linked to a chronological narrative showing the history of architecture’s Nahal Neve Daniyyel Khallet Al-Louza Al-'Asakira Rosh Zurim Za'tara Al-Jab'a Ath-Thabra 367 Al-Fureidis Wadi Rahhal Al-Beida Abu Nujeim Kh.Ad-Deir El'azar Al-'iqab 90 Bat Ayin Jurat Ash-Sham'a Harmala Allon Shevut Al-Ma'sara Wadi An-Nis 356 Teq o a allows for a limited understanding of architecture. role in developing strategies for building the settlements. According to Weizman and Segal, this civilian Kefar Ezyon Kh. ad-Deir Al-Halqum Noqedim 11 Umm Salamuna Safa Al-Manshiya Migdal Oz Tuqu' Marah Rabah Beit Fajjar Kisan First, he says, “the tribunal’s axis of interpretation occupation of the West Bank began as horizontal expansion, as visible on a map, and transitioned into Jala Al-'Arrub RC Qila Karme Zur Al-Maniya 'Irqan Turad Nuba 356 Kuziba Ma'ale Amos Sa'ir always leads to the question of authorial respon- a vertical, sectional strategy in the 1980s that utilizes the topography of the land.

Asefar (Mezad) Tarqumiya Ash-Shuyukh Mizpe Shalem Bir Musallam Qafan Al-Khamis Arab ar-Rashayida Beit 'Einun sibility,” and second, “the tribunal sees violence In addition to the larger map, there was a set of smaller maps made by Ilan Potash to represent dif- 35 Telem Ad-Duwwara Trans-Judean Road 90 12

Ar-Rawa'in Adora Dead Sea Qiryat Arba Beit Maqdum as an instrument apprehended by subjects who ferent moments throughout the history of the occupation (Zionist demands at the 1919 peace confer- Al-Kum

Al-Muwarraq Deir Samit Rafada 60 Bani Na'im H 1 H 2 Dura Beit 'Awwa Mazari En-Nubani know what they’re doing and why they’re doing ence, the 1947 un partition plan, the for Israeli withdrawal following 1967, etc.). Below each Nahal Aner Nahal Negohot Bet Hagay Birin Sikka At-Tabaqa Al-Hijra Tawas Zif Kharas Built-up Area (Settlement) Al-Fawwar RC Pene Hever Al-Majd Marah Al-Baqqar Hadab Hadab Al-Fawwar it.” This assumption, he continues, is “denied by was a corresponding diagram depicting the Jewish settlements at roughly the same historic moment, Ad-Dalabeh Deir Al-'Asal 'Abda Area within Municipal Boundary (Settlement) At-Tahta Al-Buweib Deir Al-'Asal Ar-Rihiya 13 Regional Council Jurisdictional Area (Settlement) Al-Foqa 356 Beit Ar-Rush Qinan A n-Najma Ad-Duweir At-Tahta Yatta Military Base Karama Beit 'Amra Qurnat Ar-Ras Beit Ar-Rush Ad-Deirat Al-Fauqa any rigorous way of understanding subjectivity represented as dots intended to visually diagram the growth and distribution of settlements as they Otni'el Built-up Area (Palestinian) Kh. Al-Hadab Umm Lasafa Karmel Kurza Az-Zuweidin Al-Burj Abu Al-'Urqan Kh. Al-Karmil Area A I'zeiz Duma Al-Faqir Area B As-Simiya Khashem Al-Karem At-Tuwani and identity.” As described by Herscher, architec- correlate to the moving international border. Highlighting these points on a map was not a rhetorical Kh. Ma'in Adh-Dhahiriya Ma'on An-Najada 317

Area H1 (Hebron) Anab Al-Kabir As-Samu' Suseya Kh. Tawil Area H2 (Hebron) Eshkolot ture, both in its construction and destruction, is a strategy retroactively imposed by curators of an exhibition, but the primary motive for the early expan- Ar-Ramadin Regular Road Shim'a Kh. Bir Al-'Idd 14 Tene By-pass Road 60 Sansana Mezadot Yehuda Shani 1949 Armistice Line ("") 'Arab Al-Fureijat complex ensemble of memory, identity and sub- sion of the Jewish presence in during the British Mandate. Even in the earliest examples of 60 Road Number

Abbreviations: jectivity. Within the interpretive context of the pioneering agricultural settlements, the settlers defined them as “settlement points” rather than towns RC - Refugee Camp Kh. - Khirbe - Small Village B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories law, this complexity is often reduced to a single or villages. This term, according to Sharon Rotbard, “hints at the fact that the ‘point’ on the map was Scale 1:150,000 8 Hata'asiya St. (4th Floor) Talpiot, Jerusalem 93420 Tel. 972-2-6735599, Fax. 972-2-6749111 15 E-mail: [email protected] http//www.btselem.org 041 2 3 5 10 KM 12 Produced Jointly with Eyal Weizman - Architect objective meaning – in Herscher’s words, “what more important than the ‘settlement’ itself.” A B C D E F G H I was in dispute in Kosovo was not what architec- This impulse for expansion was amplified and codified in the 1950s under the direction of Arieh ture is but who destroyed it.”9 Sharon, a Bauhaus graduate. His master plan established many of the urban planning strategies still

08 09 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

included by the curators are not indices of a built reality, but the link that connects the violation of the law to authorial responsibility (i.e., the architect who drew the plans). In 2003, Weizman and Segal’s exhibition was reorganized and presented at two separate galler- ies: first at New York’s Storefront for Art and Architecture and then as part of theTerritories exhibi- tion at Berlin’s kw Institute for Contemporary Art. Unlike the original exhibition, neither of these were curated solely for an audience of professional architects and a larger emphasis was placed on the aerial photographs of mountain settlements. At Storefront, the exhibition was organized to bring awareness to the original’s cancellation and coincided with the publication of the censored catalog. The images were hung at eye level and anno- tated with numbers to be “read,” in Weizman’s words, “like an aerial reconnaissance document.”16 The Na’hliel, Ramallah region. Milutin Labudovic. Peace Now, 2002 planimetric drawings, maps and other information were located beneath the photographs and on adjacent walls. A few months later, at the kw Institute, the aerial images were made life-sized: stretched from floor to ceiling, creating a fictionalized panoramic view across three walls of the enormous gal- lery. The center of the exhibition was left empty, allowing visitors to walk into the open gallery and look outwards to the occupied West Bank. used today and attempted to direct new immigrants away from the coast The actual built reality of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank (the These two types of displays – the panorama and reconnaissance photos – show two different and large cities with government incentives and the construction of new ouvrage) — the curving roads which act as defensive structures, the infra- strategies for displaying the meaning of architectural work. In the canceled exhibition and at Store- settlements.13 After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel seized 40 per cent of structure used to control the movement of people, the rings of houses front, the fragmented display of architectural media is isolated, abstracted and brought into view as the West Bank, primarily barren hilltops and mountain peaks, through a which tactically use Israeli living rooms to surveil the valleys below, the a matrix of indices, representations and objects. In doing this, the curators challenge the assump- manipulative use of the Ottoman land law of 1858, which allowed for the physical domination of the landscape, the performative displays of Zion- tion that architecture is a static symbol; instead, the links between the media are where meaning state to take possession of land that had not been farmed or worked in the ist ideology — these are the most significant violations of human rights is produced, consumed and able to be debated in a public forum. In the latter, the visitor of the previous three years.14 To visually display this historical arc — from hori- imposed on the Palestinian people. However, in the interpretive context of exhibition is given only a single view. In this panorama, the photographs foreground the Israeli zontal land acquisition to vertical landscape domination — maps and pla- the law, the function of these settlements holds no proof of guilt or inno- settlements perched triumphantly on the mountaintops, with Palestinian cities off in the distance nimetric drawings were accompanied by aerial photographs of mountain cence. What makes these settlements illegal, as defined by international or showing them within isolated, pastoral surroundings. In the former, these act as evidence of the settlements taken by Milutin Labudovic. Instead of walls or fences, these humanitarian law, is that their physical built location violates a specific, vertical dominance described by Weizman, and in the latter, they depict the rhetorical strategy later settlements, which were built on the seized mountaintops, relied on understandable boundary as represented on a map. An international tri- used by the Israeli government to encourage young families to move to these settlements—their the power of vision and the infrastructure of the towns to control the val- bunal cannot try Zionist ideology, just as it cannot try capitalism. Instead, terraced olive orchards and stone buildings, the return to the biblical land. leys below. Most importantly, these settlements were often strategically a court requires a violation of the law to be traced to a specific author. In the nineteenth century, panoramic paintings and photographs became supplements to travel located near Palestinian cities. The people living in them would provide In this legal context, the representation of the built reality (a point on a map) education and mass entertainment. These exhibitions were often held in buildings built for this pur- close territorial surveillance of the Palestinian people below, blurring the is more important in proving guilt than the physical reality of the object pose, designed to showcase the panoramic view, recreating the experience of visiting faraway lands.17 lines between civilians and the military and disciplining Israeli citizens to act itself, even if this representation relies exclusively on the physical object to The exhibition at the kw Institute, reminiscent of one of these panorama buildings, was intended as guards and as prisoners.15 derive its significance. In this case, the planimetric drawings of settlements to exhibit how Israeli settlers “turned topography into scenography, forming an exegetical landscape with a mesh of scriptural signification that must be extracted from the panorama and ‘read’ rather

010 011 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

Exhibition image at the KW Institute, Storefront for Art and Architecture, 2003 Exhibition Image at the KW Institute, Storefront for Art and Architecture, 2003

than merely be ‘seen.’ “Within this panorama, however, lies a cruel paradox,” be seen in the architectural reconstructions, narrations and exhibitions Weizman and Segal say, “the very thing that renders the landscape ‘biblical’ or that showcased the technological advancements of industrialized coun- ‘pastoral,’ its traditional inhabitation and cultivation in terraces, olive orchards, tries. Nations outside of Europe, however, such as Islamic countries, were stone buildings and the presence of livestock, is produced by the Palestinians, presented, as Zeynep Celik has said, “frozen in an ambiguous and distant who the Jewish settlers came to replace.”18 past…incapable of change and advancement.”20 This attribution of mean- This interest in presenting geography and cities in a single, legible image ing to objects was not just true in full-scale architectural representation, is central to nineteenth century assumptions about the way architectural but also in the way Islamic goods at the exhibitions were simultaneously meaning could symbolize and visually define national, regional and local seen as both educational objects and commodities (“part museum…part identities. This idea was central to debates on the connections between archi- bazaar”), which not only suggests that Islamic culture is already complete tectural style and the nation-state in Germany and England or, for example, and knowable (read: not developing), but, as Mark Crinson has said, “pop- the new awareness of the meaning of public symbols and the potential of ularized a certain kind of knowledge about the Orient…by saying that real- planned public spaces that emerged during the French Revolution.19 In the ity elsewhere was already understood and objectified, and therefore could context of nineteenth century international exhibitions, this tendency can easily be comprehended by the exhibition visitor.”21

012 013 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

Section of the Rotunda, Leicester Square. Robert Mitchell, 1801

The Zionist image of ancient Israel, whose roots are visible in the exhibition’s panorama, is one in which Europeans imagined Palestine as a static landscape. This idea emerged in nineteenth century biblical studies and is part of the discourse of orientalism.22 According to Edward Said, the depiction of Palestine by the Zionists was “either empty (as in the Zionist slogan, ‘a land without people for a people without land’) or neglected by the nomads and peasants who facelessly lived on it.”23 In reconstructing the image of this biblical landscape through a panorama, however, one risks reproducing this discourse of power. In Weizman and Segal’s exhibition, any human presence is assumed only through the depic- tion of buildings and landscapes, which is emphasized by the lack of any human testimony, most specifi- cally the lack of Palestinian voices.24 However, some visual presence of the huge populations of Palestin- ian cities, even if only reduced to faceless buildings off in the distance, is important in terms of displaying

the falseness of these claims, particularly when there has been so much effort to construct artificial Pisgat Ze’ev and the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp, Jerusalem. Milutin Labudovic. Peace Now, 2002 memories with actual settlements to write the inhabitants out of history and wipe them off the map.

014 015 + bitácora arquitectura número 44 noviembre 2019 + marzo 2020

Notes References 1. A year later, after the exhibition was banned, Verso and Babel published an edited Bergdoll, Berry. “Out of Site/In Plain View: On the Origins and Actuality of the Archi- version of the original catalog. See Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman,A Civilian Occupa- tecture Exhibition.” In Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, ed. Exhibiting Architecture: A Paradox? tion: The Politics of Israeli Architecture (: Verso, 2003). New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 2015. 2. Rafi Segal, Eyal Weizman, “Introduction,” A Civilian Occupation, 20. Bois, Yve-Alain, Denis Hollier, Rosalind Krauss and Jean-Louis Cohen. “A Conversation 3. Sharon Rotbard, “Preface,” A Civilian Occupation, 16. with Jean-Louis Cohen.” October 89 (1999): 3-18. doi:10.2307/779136. 4. Eyal Weizman and Andrew Herscher, “Conversation: Architecture, Violence, Evi- Çelik, Zeynep. Displaying the Orient: Architecture of at the Nineteenth-Century dence,” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criti- World’s Fairs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. cism 8-1 (Summer 2011): 120-21, doi:10.5749/futuante.8.1.0111. Crinson, Mark. Empire Building: Orientalism and Victorian Architecture. New York: Rout- 5. For a discussion of this work, see Eyal Weizman and Andrew Herscher, “Conversa- ledge, 1996. tion: Architecture, Violence, Evidence.” See also Eyal Weizman and Tina Di Carlo, Herscher, Andrew. Violence Taking Place: The Architecture of the Kosovo Conflict. Stan- “Dying to Speak: Forensic Spatiality,” Log 20 (Fall 2010): 125-31. ford: Stanford University Press, 2010. 6. Eyal Weizman and Andrew Herscher, “Conversation: Architecture, Violence, Evi- Hübsch, Heinrich. In What Style Should We Build?: The German Debate on Architectural dence,” 123. Style. Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1992. 7. A/HRC/29/52, Human Rights Council, Report of the detailed findings of the Com- Jabareen, Yosef. “Review of A Civilian Occupation.” The Arab Studies Journal 14-2 (Fall mission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict, para. 574. In this report, 2 251 Pales- 2006): 137-141. tinians were said to have been killed during the 51-day conflict. This figure includes Neumann, Dietrich. “Instead of the Grand Tour: Travel Replacement in the Nineteenth 1,462 Palestinian civilians, including 299 women and 551 children. These deaths were Century,” Perspecta 41 (2008): 47-53. caused by 6,000 airstrikes and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells, which Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. damaged 160,000 homes, killing or displacing thousands of families. In these same 51 . “Invention, Memory, and Place.” Critical Inquiry 26-2 (Winter 2000): 175- days, six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers were killed. 192. 8. See Andrew Herscher, Violence Taking Place: The Architecture of the Kosovo Conflict Segal, Rafi and Eyal Weizman.A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010). London: Verso, 2003. 9. Eyal Weizman and Andrew Herscher, “Conversation: Architecture, Violence, Evi- Weizman, Eyal and Andrew Herscher. “Conversation: Architecture, Violence, Evi- dence,” 113. dence.” Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criti- 10. Berry Bergdoll, “Out of Site/In Plain View: On the Origins and Actuality of the Ar- cism 8-1 (Summer 2011): 111-123. doi:10.5749/futuante.8.1.0111. chitecture Exhibition,” in Eeva-liisa Pelkonen, ed., Exhibiting Architecture: A Para- Weizman, Eyal and Tina Di Carlo. “Dying to Speak: Forensic Spatiality.” Log 20 (Fall dox? (New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 2015), 13. 2010): 125-31. 11. Yve-Alain Bois, Denis Hollier, Rosalind Krauss and Jean-Louis Cohen, “A Conversa- Forensic Architecture, photographs and videos arranged in a 3D model to tell the story of one of the heaviest days of bombardment in the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. The Image-Complex, Rafah: tion with Jean-Louis Cohen,” October 89 (1999), 6, doi:10.2307/779136. Black Friday, Forensic Architecture, 2015 12. Sharon Rotbard, “Wall and Tower,” A Civilian Occupation, 48. 13. Zvi Efrat, “The Plan,”A Civilian Occupation, 59-79. 14. Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, “The Mountain,”A Civilian Occupation, 82. 15. Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, “The Mountain,”A Civilian Occupation, 86. 16. Eyal Weizman, email to Sarah Herda, January 6, 2003. Found in Storefront for Art and Architecture, National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Weizman’s recent work as the director of Forensic Architecture has combined the two curatorial strate- 17. Dietrich Neumann, “Instead of the Grand Tour: Travel Replacement in the Nine- gies discussed in this paper. This research uses fragmentary media such as images and video clips to teenth Century,” Perspecta 41 (2008): 47-53. 18. Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, “The Mountain,”A Civilian Occupation, 92. create digital models and simulations of real-time events. For example, in a project titled “Hannibal in 19. Heinrich Hübsch, In What Style Should We Build?: The German Debate on Architec- Rafah,” the research team reconstructed the entire day of August 1, known as Black Friday, the deadliest tural Style (Santa Monica: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, day in the 2014 Israel-Gaza war. Considering minute details such as the movement of clouds and the 1992). 20. Zeynep Çelik, Displaying the Orient: Architecture of Islam at the Nineteenth-Century length of building shadows, 7,000 images, sound clips and videos were combined to create a panoramic World’s Fairs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 56. view of the entire day. Given this recent work, the exhibition canceled by the Israeli Association of 21. Mark Crinson, Empire Building: Orientalism and Victorian Architecture (New York: United Architects in 2002 should not be seen as a byproduct of a larger cultural shift in which courts Routledge, 1996), 64. Michael Moynihan 22. Edward W. Said, “Invention, Memory, and Place,” Critical Inquiry 26-2 (Winter have requested forensic and medical data, but, instead, this exhibition was an early testing ground for PhD Candidate in the History of Architecture, 2000), 185. See also Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1994). adapting architectural languages and methods in ways that would allow for the nature and possibilities 23. Edward W. Said, “Invention, Memory, and Place,” 187. Cornell University of architectural evidence and expertise to be reimagined for the needs of humans rights organizations, 24. This criticism of there being no Palestinian voices included in the catalog has been Master of Arts in Architectural History, Bartlett School of Architecture, prosecutors in international tribunals, journalists and the relatives of victims. made by Yosef Jabareen. See Yosef Jabareen, The Arab Studies Journal 14-2 (Fall University College, London 2006), 140. [email protected]

016 017