ART / STATES CULTURE / OF POST POLITICS / COLONIALITY /

Palestine — Palestine 2013

SHORT FUSE FEATURES

5 alQAWS FOR 10 ACTUAL SIZE SEXUAL & GENDER 18 BASIL ALZERI DIVERSITY IN 26 SHATER HASSAN

PALESTINIAN 28 KAMAL ALJAFARI 2 SPRING – SOCIETY 36 INSIDE 7 INDIGENOUS DECOLONIZING YOUTH DELEGATION ARCHITECTURE TO PALESTINE 9 BOYCOTT, DIVEST– MENT, SANCTIONS REVIEWS 15 ZAINAB AMADAHY 17 LADY GAZA 50 SECTOR ZERO 51 VICKY MOUFAWAD-PAUL

COLUMNS 53 EYAL WEIZMAN FUSE MAGAZINE 36 54 FÉMINISMES 44 CLOSE READINGS ÉLECTRIQUES 47 MAKING IT WORK

8.50 CAD / USD Printed in Canada on Indigenous land EDITORIAL

Palestine — Palestine

The struggle for the liberation of Palestine Palestine – Palestine is the fourth in the FUSE series States is rooted in the struggle against its settler colonial of Postcoloniality. Launched in the fall of 2011, the series has taken a distinctly artlike approach to cataloguing present symptoms of context [1], and is part of a wider network of colonialism and the challenges mounted against them. The regionally anti-colonial resistance. [2] In this issue of FUSE, themed issues (Egypt, Inuit Nunangat and Lithuania thus far) have guest-edited by Nasrin Himada and Reena Katz, we mainly featured knowledge produced in and around the industry of contemporary art. But the thing that most squarely places the series highlight the shared structures and contemporary within the universe of an artist’s magazine is the editorial insistence effects of settler colonialism brought to bear on on telling the truth but telling it slant. [5] Designed as a critical communities in Palestine and on Turtle Island. As intervention into the contemporary art discourse in southern Canada, where most of our readers are located, the series has not addressed the Idle No More movement continues to thrive, it is colonial realities in our immediate communities but looked elsewhere, clear that its goals are to undermine the numerous hoping to be a part of collectively breaking the public fiction that colonial policies and procedures that are crucial to Canada is not a settler state. In the process, we have also had the opportunity to articulate solidarity across disparate geographies and the current operation of the Canadian state. [3] histories. With Palestine – Palestine, we affirm the necessity of under- Similarly, Palestinians, in their struggle against the standing the commonalities and differences between the settler Israeli state since its inception in 1948, take aim colonialism of Israel and Canada. As we worked on this issue, we began toying with the series name; post become post while at a colonial history that is not past but perniciously coloniality stayed put. We are not in a post-colonial world, and we in the present. The Nakba persists in every second are not complicit with a history that forgets the ways in which that passes. [4] colonial violence has shaped and formed our present. As Patrick Wolfe puts it, settler colonialism is a structure not an event. [6]

[1] Colonialism and settler [2] Omar Jabary Salamanca, [3] Idle No More is a grassroots sovereign powers First Nations Pillar of Defense in November colonialism operate under Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie and movement that began with four have over their reserve land. This 2012. See Eyal Weizman, “Short different structures, processes and Sobhi Samour write in “Past is women, Nina Wilson, Sheelah paves the way for the Canadian Cuts,” London Review of Books (6 procedures but are driven by two Present: Settler Colonialism in Mclean, Sylvia McAdam and government to gain control over December 2012; online). principles—increase of labour Palestine: “As for other settler Jessica Gordon in December territory for resource extraction production and to eliminate the colonial movements, for Zionism, 2012. The movement asserts and exploitation. [5] Emily Dickinson, “Tell All the native. However, settler the control of land is a zero-sum Indigenous sovereignty and aims to Truth,” Complete Poems of Emily colonialism is marked by its contest fought against the protect the lands and waters that [4] 15 May 1948 marks the Nakba Dickinson (1955). permanence, in the sense that it indigenous population. The drive are under threat with the passing for Palestinians, the Arabic term seeks its own future demise—to to control the maximum amount of eight federal bills such as omnibus for catastrophe, the day the Israeli [6] See Patrick Wolfe, “Settler be permanently settled. See of land is at its centre.” in Settler C-45. A bill proposed by the state was established. During the Colonialism and the Elimination Lorenzo Veracini, “Introducing Colonial Studies 2.1 (2012), 1-8. Canadian conservative government production of this issue Gaza was of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Settler Colonial Studies,” in Settler lead by Prime Minister Stephen brutally attacked and bombed by Studies, 8,4 (2006): 387-409. Colonial Studies 1.1 (2011),1-12. Harper. C-45 aims to dissolve the what Israel termed, Operation This issue of FUSE takes a precise position: that continuity of shared struggle. Jodi Voice, the co-founder of decolonization and autonomy are at the heart of the struggle for Dallas-based 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries, reflects on Palestine. We have avoided rehearsing redundant polemics, or the group’s 2009 visit to Palestine as part of the Indigenous Youth outlining ready-made histories. With this collection of work, we offer Delegation to Palestine. Haneen Maikey examines her work with up fresh forms of expression in the face of what’s already been said Jerusalem-based alQaws, a group mobilized around sexual and about Palestine, its position in multiple imaginaries, its history/ies, gender diversity in Palestinian society. its current state of affairs and the infinite possibilities for standing This issue highlights the relationship between modes of in solidarity with global uprisings. We do not propose “solutions to cultural production and direct dissent, self-determination, and the conflict,” but present projects that challenge the insidious structure autonomy. Haitham Ennasr’s analog proposal for a participatory of colonization from within cultural forms such as film, architecture, video game hails readers as activators in a fractured, half-forgotten food and art. Palestinian folk tale. Mike Hoolboom’s discussion of Nadim Our title, Palestine – Palestine refuses the liberal discourse Mishlawi’s haunting documentary, Sector Zero (2011) highlights how of equating Palestine and Israel as two equally functioning entities. film can activate spectators, producing desire not just to receive, It also refuses to frame Palestine as the counter to Israel, as its but to dynamically shift oppressive structures. Basil AlZeri discusses eternal Other. Palestine – Palestine liberates from its colonial his use of food and performance as an investigation of power and perpetrator, releasing it from the false dichotomy that masks the resistance associated with gendered labour, cultural preservation violence of settler colonialism with the language of “conflict” or “war.” and the pleasures of eating. In thinking through Palestine – Palestine in conversation with anti- Over the months of production on this issue, we found colonial movements across the world, we position it as an homage to ourselves putting many of the words and images we were working the revolutionary struggles that began in the 1960s, in the Palestinian with in conversation with current events and movements. In refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. Palestinian revolutionaries, the November 2012, Palestine was voted in as non-member observer Fidae’en, called for anti-imperial forms of struggle alongside the state in the UN and this year’s World Social Forum focused on Third World International movements across continents in Africa, Asia Palestine. We will be launching this issue into the 9th anniversary and Latin America. There is no room within Palestine – Palestine for year of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), now in over 215 cities across state-sanctioned forms of “peace-making” that are encapsulated the world. Rwayda (Rod) Al-Kamisi addresses the impulse behind by neoliberal ethics of position placing. There is no room for the IAW with an outline of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions referent war. This is occupation. And the struggle continues. movement and its recent achievements. Etienne Turpin writes a timely In this issue, we showcase the physical and literal review of Israeli architect Eyal Weizman’s recent book, The Least of formations of occupation that are compounded by material forces. All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza (2011), Kamal AlJafari, Nishat Awan and Cressida Kocienski, and Kandis which outlines the violence implicit in humanitarian interventions. Friesen illustrate “politics in matter”[7] through the fields of cinema, The review addresses the significance of what Weizman terms, the architecture and visual mapping. Aljafari gives a poignant demonstra- “humanitarian paradox,” “wherein humanitarian relief can simultan- tion of cinema’s role in the destruction of Jaffa, referencing eously increase political oppression.” [8] the history of what he terms “cinematic occupation.” Awan and We are pleased to announce a number of exciting events, Kocienski describe their recent experience working with the art partnerships and developments alongside the release of and architecture collective and residency program, Decolonizing Palestine – Palestine. FUSE staff and board of directors are proud to Architecture, on their Common Assembly project in the Abu Dis announce that we have officially endorsed the Boycott, Divestment neighbourhood of Jerusalem. They engage the complicated terrain and Sanctions campaign against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. of art systems and cultural production within the context of We’re launching Palestine – Palestine during Israeli Apartheid Week occupation. Friesen offers up a precisely-wrought documentation (IAW) Toronto, 1–8 March, with a presentation at their opening event of the many corporations involved in producing and maintaining the on 1 March, and we’ll be tabling at each event throughout the week. apartheid wall, fostering awareness of the global networked capital On 15 March, FUSE and IAW Toronto will co-present AlZeri’s of the Israeli military industrial complex. performance, The Mobile Kitchen Lab: beit Suad, as part of FADO’s Palestine – Palestine circulates and unpacks perspectives Emerging Artists Series, .sight.specific., curated by Francisco- critical of settler colonialism, proposing instead strategies for Fernando Granados. The performance will take place at Xpace mobilizing against structures of occupation. Zainab Amadahy Cultural Centre. Finally, with this issue, we’re pleased to announce discusses her involvement in Palestine solidarity work in Toronto, two brand-new columns. From Richard William Hill, you can expect the limits she faced in terms of Indigenous inclusion, and the critical close readings of contemporary Indigenous art. Maiko

[7] See Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of à Occupation (London; New York: Green Fava Beans in Verso, 2007). Olive Oil (Foul Bi Zeit). Courtesy of Basil AlZeri and [8] This issue of FUSE., 53. Suad ElHaj Hassan.

Palestine – Palestine Tanaka’s column will consist of attentive assessments of the political Nasrin Himada is a writer, independent Reena Katz uses live and recorded sound changes. But before demonstrating these major economies of contemporary art as revealed and reproduced through film curator and teacher residing in to consider bodies as sites of knowledge, signposts, I would like to share with you three specific discursive programming and events. Montreal. Her writing appears in venues and communication as social practice. Her such as Montreal Serai, West Coast sound work spans the fields of aesthetics, Signposts criteria that alQaws has used in the last ten years As we go to print, Israeli occupation forces are removing Line, Inflexions, and FUSE. She teaches cultural production and movement building. Palestinian and international solidarity protestors at the Canaan in Geography, Urban Planning and She has won many awards for her audio as a compass for our work, for our success, village camp, near Yatta in the West Bank. This symbolic village, Environment, and is currently completing work, including the 2012 Social Justice and most importantly for dealing with the many erected to protest Israel’s plans to expand nearby illegal settlements a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Program Fellowship from Eugene Lang College and has now been razed twice in a week. Over 150 activists were in Society and Culture at Concordia the Third Coast Audio Festival’s Emerging from challenges we face. University. Himada’s research focuses Artist award for can you say haa?, attacked with wastewater, stun and tear gas grenades, then arrested. on the militarization of urban space a radioplay about the Hebrew re-naming The first criterion is that we measure success in our ability, The Canaan village actions are aimed at illustrating local farmers’ through prison infrastructure and police of Arabic Palestine. Katz is co-founder as a LGBTQ movement, to change the political and social discourse direct relationship to the land and its history, and the increasing surveillance. She sits on the editorial board of Just Peace Radio Feminist, Students around sexuality. The aim is not only to change this discourse, but dispossession they face by expanded settlement construction. of the journal Scapegoat: Architecture/ for Justice in Palestine, and Dykes and alQaws also continuously develop it in order to ensure that we remain Landscape/Political Economy. Trans People for Palestine. Indigenous custodial rights form their demands, and the language connected to our reality and our general context. This includes with which they describe their struggle: “We declare that it is our challenging both the external discourse (how representations natural right to develop, reclaim, improve, use, and live on all our of sexuality and sexual diversity play out in mainstream society) and lands free and without threats from occupiers/colonizers.” [9] our own internal discourse (how we as LGBTQ groups discuss our roles, our homophobia and prejudices). The presence of such a gap Nasrin Himada, Reena Katz and Gina Badger between discourses points to the need to reconsider our goals and practices. This issue is dedicated to Mustafa Abu Ali (1940 – 2009), [9] “Call for participation in The second criterion is practice. At alQaws, we do not direct action: South West Bank A Decade of Building a Queer prolific Palestinian documentary filmmaker, Committee,” press release believe there is any need or usefulness for a radical discourse if and co-founder of the Palestine Film Unit. (9 February 2013; online). Palestinian Discourse [1] we do not practice what it represents. The values and strategies of alQaws, whose successes we continue to explore (and change when necessary), are inspired by a continuous self-reflexive analysis of our field of experience. The existence of the gap between discourse and practice has always motivated us to revisit our work. One of the lessons we found useful was the importance of creating a constructive and ongoing debate as a necessary strategy for organizing within the group, which is just as significant as practical Haneen Maikey strategies. The third criterion has to do with our position that our capability for social change starts with our capability for internal The Palestinian organization alQaws for change. In that sense, being open to inevitable changes that we will Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society be facing, whether we like it or not, is important for us as an LGBTQ movement connected to both members of LGBTQ communities and is a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, society in general. The illusion that we can get through a month or questioning and queer (LGBTQ) activists who work a year or a decade of activism without having to take risks and make FUSE MAGAZINE 36 – 2 / States of Postcoloniality / Palestine – Palestine / Spring 2013 collaboratively to break down gendered and hetero- changes is a dangerous obstacle in our path. Being flexible in this area guarantees that we remain influential and ensures a precise BOARD OF DIRECTORS GUEST EDITORS FOUNDING EDITORS Copyright © Artons Publishing Inc. All normative barriers. Based in Jerusalem, alQaws assessment of the opportunities and challenges, and of the strengths Natalie Kouri-Towe Nasrin Himada Clive Robertson, rights reserved. Any reproduction without Alka Sharma Reena Katz Tom Sherman, permission is prohibited. For permission seeks to create an open space for all our members and weaknesses, in our group. Anni Spadafora Lisa Steele requests contact Access Copyright so that they may be engaged and energized in The main signposts that I mention below all centre Jaspreet Sandhu EDITORIAL COMMITTEE +1 (800) 893-5777. Artons Publishing primarily on the journey of change alQaws experienced on individual, Sara Rozenberg Francisco-Fernando Granados FUSE is published quarterly by Artons purchases First North American Serial the struggle of transforming Palestinian society in Ambereen Siddiqui Reena Katz Cultural Affairs Society and Publishing Rights and/or Limited Nonexclusive collective, social and political levels. These are usually marginalized charles c. cmith Steve Loft Inc., a non-profit artists’ organization Electronic Rights, and copyright reverts regards to broad sexual and gender justice. This at the expense of showcasing more practical achievements, which Skye Maule O’Brien Nahed Mansour incorporated in 1984. All inquiries to the writer after publication. report focuses on key signposts of the changes I will not be going through here. When we think of the progress of Rodrigo Marti and return of undeliverables to the A copy of our Submission Guidelines alQaws’ discourse over the last decade, we can see it as a story with ADVISORY BOARD Denise Ryner following address: is available on our website. FUSE’s list that alQaws has experienced over the last decade Jake Hirsch-Allen charles c. smith 454 – 401 Richmond Street West of subscribers is occasionally used by two main parts. ß Clive Robertson Brett Story Toronto ON M5V 3A8 Canada like-minded organizations to do one- in developing a large grassroots foundation. AlQaws The first has to do with how alQaws is dedicated Cover image Leila Timmins time mailings of information our readers to ongoing transformation, which is what defines our group. The STAFF cheyanne turions EMAIL: [email protected] might be interested in. Please contact us is connected to our Palestinian reality and context, by Reena Katz. source of our self-definition is the field of our work; determining our Layering of magnified Editorial Director TEL: +1 (416) 340-8026 if you would prefer not to receive these and it is a group that has played an influential details from multiple Gina Badger CONTRIBUTING EDITORS mailings. Publication of an advertisement strategies stems from translating and analyzing this experience. drawings and photographs Managing Director Anthea Black (London ON), Randy Printed in Canada by Dollco. in FUSE does not imply endorsement political role in the queer scene on a local and even In 2001, alQaws was a group embedded within an apolitical Israeli in Palestine – Palestine. Christal Pshyk Lee Cutler (Vancouver), Andrea of the advertiser by the magazine. Opinions Graphic Designers Fatona (Toronto), Lucas Freeman FUSE is indexed by Alternative Press expressed outside of specifically marked international level. Recently, unlike in the early organization. Splitting off in 2007, we became the first official Mirjam Linschooten (Milwaukee/Chicago), Amy Fung Index and ARTbibliographies Modern, editorials are not necessarily held by years, we have been able to measure and observe organization for Palestinian LGBTQs. Two years after becoming Sameer Farooq (Vancouver), Richard Fung (Toronto), and is distributed by Magazines members of FUSE staff or board. a formal NGO, we redefined ourselves as a grassroots activist group, Advertising Manager Janna Graham (London UK), Gita Canada +1 (416) 504-0274 and SUBSCRIPTION RATES: this political role through various discernible whose main mission is to work on changing lived reality, altering and Chandra Bulucon Hashemi (Toronto), Richard William Ubiquity +1 (718) 875-5491. Within Canada: $24 per year; Copyeditor Hill (Toronto), Michelle Jacques FUSE is grateful for the many hours Institutions $36 per year. Outside T. Jeffrey Malecki (Vancouver), Ashok Mathur of volunteer and modestly paid Canada: $36 per year; Institutions $48. [1]Based on Maikey’s Claudine and Deems of Proofreader (Vancouver/Kamloops), Milena labour performed by those listed on 17 May 2012 presentation at Bekhsoos feminist and queer Jenna Danchuk Placentile (Winnipeg), Lee Rodney our masthead, in our table of contents, Publications Mail Agreement No. the Active Voices conference, Arab magazine. Read the Intern (Windsor), Denise Ryner (Vancouver), and elsewhere. 40022162 organized by Aswat – original online, in English Nicole Cropley Jessica Wyman (Toronto) Registration No. Palestinian Gay Women. at Bekhsoos and in Arabic 8623 / ISSN0838-603X Translated to English by at Qadita.

Palestine – Palestine SHORT FUSE / MAIKEY 5 breaking the existing gender and sexual hierarchy in society. AlQaws visibility and pride is what is often at stake. AlQaws’ position on this construct, and adopt sexual norms and patterns so that we are more saw the immense importance of defining our role as a group extends to a critique that highlights the perception of these concepts tolerated and accepted? AlQaws has set itself the goal of destabili- with large ambitions and political goals, but consciously chose that and Western LGBTQ hegemony as a new reflection of cultural zing the foundations of existing powers and breaking society’s From “representing LGBTQs” would not be one of them. colonialism. [3] moulds. But that won’t be possible unless we can propose a In addition, alQaws saw a need to establish our work as Third, alQaws considers that struggle cannot be separated comprehensive discourse that sheds light on how every individual’s an organization, but we always believed that our main contribution from political action against occupation and colonization. The sexuality, gender and desires are controlled by patriarchy’s institu- lies in building and contributing to the larger Palestinian movement Palestinian LGBTQ movement is part of the political cause, even if tions, how heteronormativity limits our choices, and imposes what connected to promoting a new sexual discourse. During this time, it doesn’t actively participate in the fight against the symbols of is acceptable and unacceptable. The struggle for sexual difference Turtle alQaws led a big campaign challenging the stereotypical images of colonialism and occupation, which do not distinguish between gay must not be reduced to human rights and sexual freedom, but should the “gay” Palestinian — an image representing decades of sexual and straight. It’s also important to remember that the LGBTQ fundamentally revolve around resisting, dismantling, and continuous- taboo, repeatedly exploited for political ends that serve the imperialist Palestinian movements have become hostage to political games. ly criticizing patriarchal and heteronormative institutions, while also interests of the Israeli state. The primary change in the image was For example, the Israeli government uses its gay rights rhetoric to working on raising awareness about the images and behaviours Island To from that of a victim — of society, family and institutions — to an tarnish Palestinian LGBTQs’ image, [4] and to pinkwash [5] its through which these constructs are embodied in our daily lives. individual and activist with agency with respect to themselves, their crimes against the Palestinian people. Indeed, campaigns against AlQaws believes that the Western definition of an “exclusive peers and their society. pinkwashing have become important elements in our struggle heterosexuality” — and consequently of an opposing homosexuality This is an important issue for alQaws: we have no against the occupation. as an abnormal reflection of heterosexuality — is a successful Palestine demands from society, and we do not place ourselves outside of or Thus far, I have outlined some major milestones of bourgeois attempt to impose a structural division between straight opposed to society — we don’t want to reproduce destructive divisions alQaws’ journey in the past decade by discussing the importance and gay. The effect is social control over gays through acceptance, and binaries. Thus, over the years, we have taken many terms out of transforming LGBTQ discourse, and developing a different but only under the condition of segregation in the sense that “we are of our discourse, such as “acceptance” (we are not working so “you” strategic framework of struggle. Based on these pivotal aspects of here and you are there.” This is somewhat analogous to the Zionist can accept us), and “equality” (we don’t want “your” privileges), alQaws’ organizing, we are aware of a few significant and urgent Left position, which originally established the principle of segregation replacing them with other words that better communicate our vision challenges we faced. We responded to them with a thorough study in Palestine. We at alQaws challenge this discourse and seek to be as people working to create society. of different initiatives in a new strategic plan outlined briefly below. an organic part of an extensive LGBTQ movement that is against all Reflections On the Indigenous The second part of the story highlights how our discourse The first challenge revolves around the individual’s forms of social and political hegemony. We have adopted discourse and our work has allowed us to see our reality from a new perspective position and role in this journey. After focusing on building a wide that places queers at the centre, not as emotional or proactive cases, Youth Delegation To Palestine and has given us the opportunity to define our goals and our struggle leadership, strengthening social and political activism inside alQaws, but as individuals re-formulating social and political relations from with new terms. Many LGBTQ groups (Arab ones included) fall in the and committing to social change, we had to take several steps back a queer perspective, from the perspective of the “formerly oppressed.” trap of promoting LGBTQ oppression and struggle as special and and wonder how we could link these concepts, and our perception unique. However, our struggle lies in opposing patriarchal institutions of the struggle, to the individual, psychological and social needs of Haneen Maikey is a Palestinian queer and systems that regulate our sexuality, as well as challenging the LGBTQ community. AlQaws has been making huge efforts in community organizer based in Jerusalem, gender and sexual standards and norms that have always been and is the co-founder and director of recent months to build new and appropriate frameworks that place alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in depicted as fact (such as heterosexuality). This framework has the individual at the centre, with the aim of continuing to build a Palestinian Society. In addition, Maikey affected how we view alQaws’ relationship with our own society, proactive Palestinian LGBTQ community that doesn’t marginalize co-founded the independent activist Jodi Voice and how we determine our strategies for social change and transfor- the personal. group Palestinian Queers for Boycott, mation. These strategies can be summarized in three major points. The second challenge we face is in relation to the Divestment and Sanctions (PQBDS), which works to promote BDS “We’re Indian… we’re political by default,” First, as mentioned above, alQaws rejects the inorganic discourse of those who supposedly accept homosexuality only if it within queer groups around the world, division between “inside” and “outside.” If we want to strengthen our is restricted to the private or social sphere. When our work takes exposing Israel’s pinkwashing campaign. stated Ryan Red Corn at a panel where he and position and legitimacy in this community, it’s important that we begin place in public and political spheres (and not behind closed doors), a fellow member of the often “politically driven” to dismantle the polarization between the outside and the inside, and we often encounter certain liberal discourses critical of LGBTQ stop thinking of ourselves as separate from the rest of society. We’re groups. They consider, with direct or indirect accusation, that our comedy group the 1491s were discussing their not interested in building bridges between the LGBTQ community attempt to group ourselves is fragmenting society and disrupting formation, work and what drives them at a Native and society: we want to swim in the same river in order to change change toward unification and equality. Our struggle reads as American Heritage Month event held at the its course altogether. If we can’t promote our struggle as an incoherent with the liberal mandate that is tolerant of difference University of Texas at Arlington this past November. expansive social struggle, we will fail at having a sustainable impact. (to an extent). Such a sentiment is dangerous because it works to Second, we focus on unique experience and the local devalue the LGBTQ struggle, both historically and presently, under I heard this line, agreed, chuckled a bit, then took context in order to understand the structure of sexuality and the pretext of acceptance. In response to this position, alQaws is a look around me at the capacity-filled room and the attitudes around it in Palestinian society. We are cautious about committed to working directly with politically and socially active youth noticed the excitement on all the listeners’ faces, importing strategies that are irrelevant to our reality. Adopting to co-create a new discourse that does not reduce our challenges Western concepts and notions linked to homophobia [2] (such as to assimilationist strategies that induce fear or shame. [6] thinking of all the possibilities. I circled my focus coming out, visibility and pride) brings up a binary, which reinforces The following questions sum up the third challenge: back to the front of the room but could not shake other affects associated with shame, repression and fear. A focus Do we want to change society, or do we want society to change us? the thought “Political? We’re not political, we just on homophobia limits goals and strategies, which then defines the Can we resist the temptation of imitating heteronormativity? Do we ultimate purpose (i.e. coming out of the closet) and suggests that really need to confine ourselves to the family establishment and need help surviving this occupation against us.” Months earlier, while corresponding with my friend Ahmed, whom I’d met in the summer of 2009 during The Indigenous Youth [2] See Haneen Maikey [3] For further reading on [4] The image of Israeli victimhood that predominates [5] For further reading on [6] AlQaws’ youth work is and Sami Shamali’s article, this specific topic, see Lynn society is built on the representations of Palestinian pinkwashing, see Sarah based on the understanding Delegation to Palestine, a similar conviction caught my attention: as “International Day Against Darwich and Haneen colonial logic that promotes LGBTQs, and also ignores, Schulman, “Israel and that the way of change Native Americans and as Palestinians, we are not necessarily political, Homophobia: Between Maikey’s “From the Belly Israel as progressive for instance, the radical work Pinkwashing,” New York Times doesn’t have to pass through nor all of us activists. We are inheritors of history trying to survive the Western Experience of Arab Queer Activism: and Palestinian society as of Palestinian queer groups (22 November 2011; online): mainstream institutions like and the Reality of Gay Challenges and Opportuni- backwards. Palestinian present in Palestinian society. “‘pinkwashing’: a deliberate family, school or NGOs. ongoing colonization. Communities,” ties,” Bekhsoos: A Feminist LGBTQs in Israel are often strategy to conceal the contin- There are multiple ways to While attending Haskell Indian Nations University in 2008, Bekhsoos: A Feminist and and Queer Arab Magazine deemed victims of their own uing violations of Palestinians’ engage with young people I met two fellow students, Melissa Franklin and Marei Spaola, who Queer Arab Magazine (12 October 2011; online). society. This logic ignores human rights behind an through creative and direct (23 May 2011; online). Palestinian LGBTQs’ work image of modernity means outside institutional quickly became lifelong friends and fellow founding members of by enforcing an image of signified by Israeli gay life.” environments. 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries (7th GIV). The group helps

SHORT FUSE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine SHORT FUSE MAIKEY / / VOICE 6 7 build and strengthen solidarity among Indigenous peoples every- Idle No More has taken hold in my particular urban Forty-six years into Israel’s occupation of the West Bank where, with an emphasis on youth education. In March 2009, we community of Dallas, Texas — a site for the “relocation” of Native (including East Jerusalem), Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel began organizing a one-month delegation to Palestine to take place Americans by the government in the 1950s — and with the knowledge continues to illegally expand its colonies into Palestinian territory. that summer. I gained as a part of the Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine Boycott, Sixty-five years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land I had never left the US before and had no idea what to I am helping this extremely important movement grow and ethnically cleansed of its Indigenous Palestinian population, forcing expect. Upon arriving at Tel Aviv airport in July 2009, I was detained. thrive. Because of the delegation I learned important skills, such a majority of Palestinians to become stateless refugees, Israel’s “What are you?” I was repeatedly asked, to which I answered “Native as conference calling, keeping note of times and places (not just entrenched system of racial discrimination remains intact. The recent American.” “NO, no, no… where did your father immigrate from?” to recording your feelings), planning trips, fundraising, as well as the Divestment Israeli military aggression against Gaza [2] is the latest act in the which I answered “Nowhere!” After being released from the security harder skills of organizing, such as being able to speak about decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people. Thus, the BDS office, I found my fellow delegates, we gathered our thoughts and occupation without crying. 7th GIV is not afraid to stand in solidarity campaign calls upon global civil society to boycott Israeli and made our way to the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank, with all Indigenous people. That is what being Indigenous is about, international products and companies profiting from the violation of where we would stay at the Ibdaa Cultural Center. that is what our delegation to Palestine was about, and that is what and Palestinian rights, including Israeli sporting, cultural and academic During The Indigenous Youth Delegation, we held many the Idle No More movement is about: protecting each other and institutions; divest from corporations complicit in the violation of events and workshops. We showed our Palestinian friends what standing up for one another. Palestinian rights and ensure that university investment portfolios our round dances and two-step dances looked like, and they in and pension funds are not used to finance these companies; and turn shared their debkeh dance with us. A beat-making and lyricism Jodi Voice, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Sanctions impose sanctions to demonstrate disapproval and educate society workshop resulted in a song being recorded and included in is Muscogee Creek, Oglala Lakota, and about violations of international law and to end the complicity of the following issue of SNAG (Seventh Native American Generation) Cherokee. She is a founding member of 7th other nations in these violations. [3] GIV (7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries) magazine. We held silk-screening and mural-making workshops, and met fellow founding members as a In an effort to educate people and promote BDS, Israeli which allowed us to express ways to combat the issues associated student at Haskell Indian Nations University Apartheid Week (IAW) was established in 2005. The first IAW event with the Israeli apartheid wall. Both parties taught history lessons on in Lawrence, Kansas. Voice currently lives in was organized by the Arab Students’ Collective at the University of each occupation, and then discussed the eerie similarities between Dallas, where she organizes educational and Rwayda (Rod) Al-Kamisi Toronto and has since spread all over the world. IAW raises awareness the historical contexts. “Teach the youth media!” was something cultural events with a local Native American about Israel’s apartheid policies, practices and institutions that affect Parent Association. She also plans events exclaimed by the delegation constantly, in hope that stories would to connect her Indigenous community to the all Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and the diaspora, as well be shared within, around and outside the camps. The delegation Idle No More movement. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as Palestinians inside Israel. In 2012, the BDS Global Day of Action also facilitated workshops on writing, magazine-layout and setting is a global campaign applying moral and took place in 23 countries, and the eighth annual IAW was organized up wordpress blogs. economic pressure on Israel to end apartheid and on campuses in over 200 cities around the world. We spent time in several places inside and outside the Israeli Apartheid Week has also become a solidarity West Bank, from Dheisheh to Al Khalil (or Hebron) where Shufat its occupation of Palestine. The call for BDS was network, which links a wide range of groups and issues relating to Camp is located, which is entirely surrounded by the apartheid wall. first made in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian civil international justice. IAW uses a variety of formats for popular educa- We also spent time in Bethlehem, Ramallah, Balata Camp, Nablus, society organizations, unions, movements and tion, including film screenings, lectures, cultural events and Beit Ummar, Jenin Camp, Aida Camp, Qalqiliya, Qalandia, Lyd, Akka, protests. Speakers who have presented at IAW include Tyendignaga and everywhere we could stop in between. At times we strongly felt political parties representing the West Bank, Gaza, Mohawk activist Shawn Brant, philosopher/theorist Judith Butler and our own privilege of holding passports when we were allowed to Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the author/activist Naomi Klein. enter places our Palestinian friends could not, traveling through or diaspora. Inspired by the struggle of South Africans Popular consumer boycotts of Israeli companies complicit outside the West Bank. against the racist system of apartheid, they called with occupation have not only raised awareness across the world, We had a very memorable and emotionally taxing day but have had a significant economic impact on specific corporations. when we took a trip to Lifta. Our friend took us to a mosque that upon international civil organizations and people For instance, Agrexco, Israel’s former largest exporter of agricultural Israeli settlers had turned into a trash dump, and which was also of conscience around the globe to impose broad produce, entered liquidation towards the end of 2011 following vandalized with awful ethnic slurs. Our youngest US delegate was boycott, divestment and sanction initiatives against a campaign of blockades, demonstrations, popular boycotts and legal brought to tears as he began to scrape the racist graffiti off as best action in more than thirteen countries across Europe. Other as he could with a rock, and then a young Palestinian man he Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa successful boycott campaigns include the UK-based Co-operative befriended on the trip began to help him. during the apartheid era. Group (the largest co-op in Europe), which, following a determined There were times when we were frightened as well. IDF campaign by its members, introduced a policy to end trade with (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers armed with machine guns would The BDS campaign demands that Israel recognize the companies that source products from Israel’s illegal settlements. [4] step on our bus to check passports and cameras. One incident that Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully Thanks to a sustained campaign against Ahava, an Israeli cosmetics sealed our love and care for one another, and emboldened our comply with the precepts of international law by: company situated in the illegal West Bank settler colonies of Mitzpe strength to combat the occupation, occurred as an Israeli soldier in 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands Shalem and Kaliya, the company was forced to close its stores in a watch/sniper tower shot the tire of a bus we were on. We continued occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall; the UK, Norway, Japan and Canada. [5] As a result of Palestinian civil our trek to the ominous wall on foot, as we learned about the environ- 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab- society’s call for action against G4S (a private security company mental issues people in that particular camp, Qalqilya, were facing. Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and complicit in the detention of Palestinian political prisoners), the Apparently, the shot was a result of us being too close to the Wall. 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of European Parliament elected not to renew their contract with the We grew on so many levels through how we related to Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and company. [6] Furthermore, scores of artists, writers, musicians and each other. We shared our many affinities for hip-hop, dance, the properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. [1] Continued on page 15 à necessity of humour, graffiti, and silk screening. But we were also aware of the effects of violence caused by a perpetual military occupation, and learned to share our feelings about it as well. We [1] “Introducing the BDS and Why Truce Won’t Stop More Effective and More Settlements,” The Guardian [6] The European wrote together, and I still read and share these writings with others. Movement” BDS Movement the Violence of Occupa- Diverse Than Ever,’” (29 April 2012; online). Coordination of Committees (online). tion,” Democracy Now! (26 The Electronic Intifada and Associations for Back home in Dallas, I was asked constantly by my peers, “Why November 2012; online). (11 July 2012; online). [5] Palestinian BDS Palestine, “G4S Loses Its not help your own people?” I always replied with “I do!” and then [2] For background on the National Committee, “BDS Contract with the European proceeded to share how it is important to keep connected to other eight-day assault that began [3] Nora Barrows-Friedman, [4] Tracy McVeigh and Campaigners Force Parliament,” BDS Movement 10 November 2012, see “BDS Roundup: The Harriet Sherwood, “Co-op London Ahava Shop to (17 April 2012; online). situations affected by settler colonialism. Solidarity across borders Sharif Abdel Kouddous, BDS Movement, Seven Boycotts Exports from Move,” BDS Movement (31 will always matter. “Gaza’s ‘Severe Damage’ Years On, ‘Stronger, Israel’s West Bank March 2011; online).

SHORT FUSE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine SHORT FUSE VOICE / / AL-KAMISI 8 9 Palestine – Palestine Palestine – Palestine filmmakers have refused to perform or publish in Israel following pressure from the BDS movement including, in 2012, musicians Cat Power, Mashrou’ Leila and Zakir Hussain, and scholars Jacques Rancière and Katherine Franke. Also in 2012, Egyptian media Relation– collective Mosireen, Iraqi-Canadian MC The Narcicyst and American hip hop duo Rebel Diaz refused to participate in Creative Time Summit events, citing the annual New York-based forum’s partner- ship with the state-funded Israeli Center for Digital Art. [7] ships Across Despite the apparent success of BDS actions, critics have asked why Israel is singled out and not other countries that commit human rights violations, arguing that this is because of an inherent anti-Semitism. [8] In 2009, Naomi Klein addressed this question: Cornfields The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa… Economic sanctions are the most effective tools in the nonviolent arsenal. Surrendering And Olive them verges on active complicity…Boycott is not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the BDS strategy should be tried against Israel is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent, it could actually work. [9] Groves Veterans of the South African anti-apartheid campaign who led successful boycotts have also echoed these sentiments. Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize and archbishop- emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, wrote: [The] harsh reality endured by millions of Palestinians requires people and organizations of conscience to divest from those companies [profiting] from the occupation and subjugation of Palestinians. Such action made an enormous difference in apartheid South Africa. It can make an enormous difference in creating a future of justice and equality for Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land. [10] In December 2012, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), made BDS part of its official policy. The Zainab Amadahy University of Toronto’s Graduate Student Union (GSU) also endorsed BDS recently, joining other Canadian universities, including York University, the University of Regina, and Carleton University. Years ago, on my way to work, I ran into my Toronto’s ninth annual Israeli Apartheid Week is set to take friend Barb [1] who was trembling with rage. She’d place from 1 – 10 March 2013. This year’s IAW campaigns stand in just been told that her cash settlement as a resid- solidarity with the Idle No More Indigenous movement. Confirmed speakers include Crystal Lameman, Beaver Lake Cree First Nation ential school survivor not only made her ineligible activist and the Peace River tar sands campaigner for the Indigenous for social assistance, but that she’d have to pay Environmental Network in Alberta, and Razan Ghazzawi, frontline back months of benefits she’d already received. Syrian blogger and activist. There will also be a special screening of Roadmap to Apartheid with Cinema Politica at the Bloor Cinema. Barb successfully fought that decision, even though Cities across Canada and the world are also set to host IAW events. it shouldn’t have been necessary, and in any case, no amount of money could compensate her for Rwayda (Rod) Al-Kamisi is an under- graduate at the University of Toronto, past and current traumas. That day, I arrived at currently in her last year. Her specialization work shaking with rage myself. is women and gender studies, with a minor in history, and she is currently completing Then I got a call from my co-worker Tarek, a Lebanese- her thesis on the Palestine-Israeli conflict. born Palestinian solidarity activist. During the 2006 Israeli incursion Al-Kamisi is part of Students Against Israeli into Lebanon, I’d commiserated with him when he lost touch with Apartheid and a writer for the U of T family members who were living in areas the Israeli Defense Forces newspaper, The Varsity. She also volunteers had bombed and invaded. I felt moved by his plight, frustrated in and writes a blog for the Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T. my helplessness, and gratified to eventually learn his family was okay. This experience solidified my resolve as a Palestinian solidarity

[7] Nora Barrows-Friedman, Boycott Movement,” [10] Desmond Tutu, [1] To maintain privacy, “BDS Roundup: The The Electronic Intifada “Justice Requires Action fictional names are used in Victories of 2012,” (1 October 2009; online). to Stop Subjugation of this text. The Electronic Intifada Palestinians,” Tampa Bay (2 January 2013; online). [9] Naomi Klein, “Israel: Times (1 May 2012; online). Boycott, Divest, Sanction,” [8] See Sami Hermez, The Nation “Answering Critics of the (8 January 2009; online).

SHORT FUSE / AMADAHY 15 activist. Similarly, since the day I’d met him, Tarek expressed and Indigenous activists, artists and academics like Robert acted on his solidarity with First Nations peoples in a variety of ways. Lovelace [5] (who sailed on the Tahrir [6] to Gaza in 2010) continue This time, however, he was calling to share some good news: their activism, not allowing criticisms of the solidarity movement to his father had just bought him and his partner a house. I expressed deter their unflagging support for justice in the Middle East. Likewise, happiness for him, but underneath I was angry at the injustice. Tarek, Palestinian solidarity activists have created educational websites born in another land, was now a homeowner in mine. Barb, then around Idle No More and round dance with the rest of us in sub-zero in her 50s, had lived all her life on Turtle Island, a descendant of its temperatures. original caretakers, yet she was always falling in and out of crisis, Generally, discussion of relationships across our trying to survive. I struggled to articulate the relationship between movements raises issues of integrity, honour and respect in struggle. the very different lives my friends were living. While I see many activists whose organizing is consistent with the Seeing Barb after that incident, speaking and singing in values they espouse, I also see too many who role-model insincerity, solidarity with Palestinians at community events, filled me with respect tokenism, dishonesty, manipulation, as well as other oppressive and and admiration for her. Yet, I still grapple with my contradictory abusive behaviours that are inconsistent with how activists need to feelings. I question how they impact my activism. While I understand conduct themselves in order to be effective. I’ve had my own issues the history of settler colonialisms, here and in the Middle East, as in this regard and these days hold my activism to a high standard. well as complex issues of privilege and solidarity, I remain emotionally This includes learning humility and ensuring that it’s my love for unsettled by this and many other similar stories. people and hope for a better world, rather than anger, that drives Lady Some of my Indigenous friends believe the Palestinian my activism. solidarity movement seems unwilling or unable to interrogate the In any case, our movements have evolved. It’s possible complexities of settler colonialism on Turtle Island. There are now to discuss issues that we couldn’t ten years ago because legitimate concerns. Palestinian solidarity activists fly the Two Row we didn’t know each other’s stories very well — as communities Wampum [2] or Hiawatha [3] flags, even when their meanings aren’t or individuals. Today, I’m optimistic about the potential for closer Gaza clearly understood. Such activities betray a lack of awareness of the relationships and more effective mutual solidarity. Toward this end, specifics of settler colonialism here, as well as other nations’ relation- I pose this question to Palestinian solidarity activists on Turtle Island: ships to the land on which Toronto is built, such as the Anishinaabe, “If you were a settler living in Palestine right now, what would Wyandot and many others. you consider to be your responsibilities?” The query hardly begs Years ago, some Palestinian solidarity activists I was a one-size-fits-all response. working with in Toronto approached me about their experiences Were I living in Palestine, I would follow the lead of within the movement. They expressed frustration that their organiz- Palestinian communities and organizations in recovering their lands ation was insincere in its support for Indigenous struggles on Turtle and sovereignty: to understand the many ways in which I was Island. They feared my involvement in the movement was being complicit in genocide there, and to do everything I could to minimize She may have traded her microphone tokenized. They had seen First Nations spirituality being ridiculed that complicity. That might mean leaving the country, hopefully for for a megaphone, but you would be hard- and denigrated behind my back, in some cases by central organizers. a safer place. Even if I were living in Palestine, I would still feel pressed not to recognize that signature They were concerned that I was invited to co-organize, speak and a sense of responsibility to Turtle Island and the communities that hairpiece above the crowd. Lady Gaza has sing at events only to lend credibility, to appear as if they were doing sustained my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development recently emerged as her latest reinvention, something meaningful about settler colonialism in Canada. While here — particularly when those communities experience crisis. this time from international superstar to – I had sometimes felt tokenized, I trusted that the work I was doing In this interconnected world, struggling against settler if you can believe it – Palestine activist. would eventually heighten awareness of Indigenous struggles for colonialism anywhere is struggling against it everywhere. Any settler some, if not all. The awareness of these activists was actually proof living on Turtle Island owes their ability to do so to ongoing genocide of my impact. In fact, their assumption that I was unaware of being and colonialism here. I include myself as a settler. Even if I invoke "I just really felt that, as an artist, it was my tokenized hurt me as much as confirmation of the fact itself. Though my Tsalagi ancestry as lending me the right to identify as an time to give back. Everyone talks about I’m not proud to admit it, I enjoyed the celebrity that accompanied Indigenous person, I’m still living on the ancestral lands of others. Darfur and the Congo, but what about my continued activism. Furthermore, those of us who have agency in Canada, limited though the West Bank?" she says, pictured at In any case, these young folks insisted that any and every it may be, cannot escape our complicity in the actions of this Montreal Pride in a custom Thierry Mugler. settler activist had a responsibility to centralize and prioritize nation-state in Palestine, Afghanistan, Haiti and any number of places Indigenous struggles. Furthermore, they themselves felt ostracized around the globe. by their organizations because they were practicing Muslims. While The answer to my question will shift across individuals Her latest transition hasn't pleased all the they continued to engage with their own faith communities in and contexts. I trust that an awareness of the contradictions of our fans however, and despite how nonchalantly speaking out strongly and publicly against oppressive interpretations social locations, a willingness to dialogue about allyship, as well as she plays it off, the subject can still stir her of Islam, their activist communities failed to respect their spiritual efforts to honourably role-model honesty, sincerity and integrity in practice. Consequently, their questions left me wondering if solidarity our relationships, will take us to the compassionate, cooperative infamously well-documented temper. "I've organizations so grounded in secularism and hostile to spirituality and socially just world we all aspire to create. been blessed with some amazing fans," she could be genuine and effective allies with First Nations peoples. tells us from her Ramallah home, "but at I still wonder. [4] the end of the day you have to be true to yourself. These Disneyfied faggots, they [2] The flag is based on [3] The Hiawatha Flag is [4] For a more thorough Algonquin First Nation. Of African-American, Cherokee and love queens as long as you're decorative, a wampum belt that also a depiction of a discussion of this issue, see European descent, Zainab Amadahy is don't say anything political, but open your signifies one of the early pre-colonial wampum belt my article “Why Indigenous [6] The Tahrir was a a mother, singer/songwriter, activist and mouth and they cry that you're highjacking treaties between the that represents the agreement and Racialized Struggles Canadian-led boat, part of author. Her publications include the Haundenosaunee and at by the original five nations Will Always be Appendixed the larger Freedom Flotilla feminist science fiction novel Moons their parade, that you're not a 'real gay' first Dutch then British of the Haundenosaunee who by the Left,” Rabble movement, protesting the of Palmares (1997) and Wielding the concerned with 'real gay' issues. settlers, enshrining the agreed to form a (19 July 2011; online). Israeli blockade and the Force: The Science of Effective principle of noninterference confederacy informed by Canadian government’s I'm Lady m**********n Gaza! I am realness!" in each other’s affairs while the Great Law of Peace. [5] Elder, activist and retired complicity in military Activism (2012). sharing the land. Co-Chief of the Ardoch violence against Palestinians.

SHORT FUSE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine FUSE / AMADAHY / MAIKEY 16 17 Basil AlZeri – The Archivist in the Kitchen

Cuisine is a vivacious and mutable Palestinian cuisine — in Gaza and the cultural practice that has history and West Bank, in camps and in cities worldwide — politics folded right into it. The privileged reflects a history of occupation and eaters who make up North American displacement. But more than that, it reflects foodie culture may often miss the specific the skills, proclivities and ingredients histories of conquest and migration built required to survive those conditions. Basil into their eclectically global palettes, but AlZeri has captured hours of Skype video of they are present in each bite. Israeli his mother teaching him how to cook from appropriations of Palestinian ingredients her impressive oeuvre of Palestinian and dishes are illustrative; for instance, the dishes. This archive of cultural knowledge rebranding of tabouleh as “Israeli salad,” is the private counterpart to a series of and maftoul (a small, round pasta made public food-based performances he has from wheat and bulgur) as “Israeli couscous.” presented since 2011. The first performances The complex etymology of the word were mezze-style dinners in which AlZeri sabra, commonly known as the name of an presented his guests with an array of Israeli-produced hummus, reveals a Palestinian recipes in tiny dishes resting on complex history of linguistic colonialism. his body. Lying face-down on the table, the In Arabic and in Hebrew, sabra is a uncomfortably shifting body of the cook generic word for cactus, plantings of which became an antidote against the commodity were used pre-1948 to delineate borders fetishism of foodie culture. These early between Palestinian villages. More recently, performances established the labour politics in Modern Hebrew sabra has become of AlZeri’s work by highlighting two kinds of the descriptor for Israeli-born Jews — unrecognized and often unpaid labour: metaphorically and literally, the beneficiaries gendered domestic work and artist’s labour. of the clearing of the Palestinian cacti. Next, AlZeri began cooking live as a perform- In 1982, residents of the Sabra Palestinian ance with his mother, Suad, instructing him refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon were from Dubai, over Skype. Most recently, massacred by a Lebanese Christain AlZeri has been working on The Mobile Phalangist militia, in collusion with Israel, Kitchen Lab, which he will use as an itinerant one of the most brutal events in the stage for future cooking performances. history of the occupation. The name of the AlZeri performs simple and generous Palestine – Palestine hummus, so cunningly appropriated, can’t gestures, inviting his guests to identify the be separated from this settler-colonial Palestinian stories of land, resources and history. labour that are built into his recipes. I wanted to learn more about Palestinian talking to me and I can respond, I will, but Mezze food so I could share with her. because I’m head down, I can’t really talk to them. FUSE – Eventually, you began I’m interested in the passive presence to incorporate food into your artistic of the body, barely recognized for its labour. practice. How did you come to that? I’ve noticed that once people get involved in eating the food they can actually forget that BA – Cooking became an entry-point there’s a body on the table. They start having for me to introduce myself, as a human conversations, they’re laughing, and there being who is also a Palestinian, to my peers are moments where I am pretty sure that Macaroni/Pasta with Yogurt in Canada. Cuisine became a way for me they completely forget where the food comes to express myself, my history, my cultural from, who produced it, who prepared it… Elbow macaroni (either Stortini or Cavatappi – if you cannot find elbow identity, with a lot of specificity but without macaroni, cut the pasta into smaller pieces) being over-determined by certain politics. FUSE – Is it important that the body on Plain yogurt the table is also the body of the cook? Garlic FUSE – Mezze is a form of cuisine Ground beef Onions you’ve drawn on in your recent work. BA – Yes, for a couple of reasons. Almond (if available), blanched and toasted In Arab cuisine, is mezze an appetizer I think a lot about how artists’ labour is often Parsley course within a larger meal, or more forgotten, just as it is in many other fields, Salt and pepper its own style of eating? including food preparation. At Don Blanche, my residency consisted of working in the Fry the ground beef in olive oil and onions, then put aside BA – People don’t necessarily eat kitchen; myself and another artist, Deirdre to cool. Cook the pasta in a big pot of salted boiling water and strain. Crush garlic and mix with the yogurt, mezze and then a main course and then Fraser, cooked for basically the whole then pour over macaroni and mix. On top of the macaroni dessert. Mezze can be the whole meal. The duration. People were very grateful and mix, layer more yogurt; the cooked, cooled ground beef meal is made of many different little dishes, acknowledged our cooking, but we worked and onions; the almonds, and the parsley. and that’s all you eat. For lighter meals, the whole time to feed the mass of people — FUSE – When did you learn to cook? or lunch, or even a lighter dinner. It’s usually from 20 up to nearly 100 towards the end of the type of meal for when you have a little the residency period. My body on the serving Basil AlZeri – After I left home, at time to sit around and talk. It has a social table became a reminder of that labour. age 17. My sister Karmel and I were living aspect to it. Where people sit around and The other aspect that’s important is together in Cairo, and we were sick of eat for longer, and the plates keep coming. that I’m serving all these Palestinian mezze eating out all the time. So she proposed a that I cooked carefully and with a lot of love. deal where I would wash the dishes and she FUSE – How many times have In order to get the dips or the spreads onto would cook. She said, “I’m not your wife or you done the mezze-style dinner a cracker or a piece of pita bread, the guests your mother, if you want me to cook, you party performances? actually had to apply some pressure on my have to wash the dishes.” body. It’s unintentional pain that they cause; BA – The first time I experimented with they didn’t even know they were causing it. Fatoosh FUSE – Was she a good cook? that gesture was very informal, in a private And little bits of olive oil or sauce would spill, Salad Dressing space, in 2010. It was Mother’s Day, and I and it would drip down my skin, and they Pita bread Olive oil BA – She just copied my mother’s dedicated the first dinner party performance didn’t mean to do that. I heard from some of Tomatoes Lemon dishes exactly. to my mom. I kept working with the idea of the guests that they were a little worried Cucumber Salt Green pepper Balsamic or cider vinegar the body and cooking and food preparation. about me. They were trying to eat quickly so Parsley Sumac FUSE – So it was your mother who I did a short residency at Don Blanche in that I could get up. Mint Pomegranate molasses cooked at home? August 2012, where my role as an artist was Green olives as a cook’s assistant. I realized that I’d like FUSE – This little aggressive Watercress (if available) Romaine Lettuce BA – Yes, my mother was always in to present something there towards the end gesture of sacrifice underlines your full control of the kitchen. It was her domain. of my residency, and it seemed like a really labour. It makes the use of your Cut the pita bread into little squares and toast it in olive great chance to re-enact certain elements of body more explicit. oil. Chop all vegetables and add to a large mixing bowl. FUSE – So you always had these the food gestures, but in a different context. Add the dressing and toss well, then add the toasted women cook for you. How did you get BA – But there’s another dimension: bread and toss again. Make sure to add the toasted bread and dressing just before eating. interested in cooking yourself? FUSE – Like the first mezze dinner, the gesture isn’t only about me specifically. for the performance at Don Blanche I think of my mom in her domestic role, BA – I became really good friends with your body was used as a surface for making sure that we eat well, and cooking Rina, a Japanese student at the American serving food. While you are serving, every single day. I think of her labour, and University in Cairo where we were both do you interact with the eaters at all, that of other mothers, people who cook studying. She was really well traveled and or do you just lie there? as professionals, unrecognized labour in adventuresome. She was really knowl- general—but especially people whose edgeable about world food and introduced BA – No, I don’t interact with the cooking is daily, unpaid labour. me to so many new ingredients. eaters — I like to call them the guests. My She also taught me about street food gesture is a bit strenuous, but at base it’s FUSE – You also morph into in Cairo. We started cooking together and she a friendly gesture. I don’t try to achieve something of an archetype because eventually moved in with Karmel and I. She a complete stillness or anything. I shift or you’re face-down — you’re not Basil, so was very proud of Japanese cuisine, and so stretch a bit. And if someone insists on who are you? Are you an anonymous

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / ALZERI

20 21 Brown body? Are you a Palestinian people have to that information, their of the city called Ex Teresa Arte Actual, an body? And how are these details reading will get more nuanced and The Main Course ex-convent and chapel. It’s a historical related to the bodily sacrifice more complex. Even without these building, built in 1616, with huge thick walls, you’re describing? details, your performance ideally beautiful façades, and glass domes on top. would evoke the interrelation of The space the performances took place BA – I touch on that through the labour, exploitation and histories of in was emptied out entirely — there were Palestinian food I’m serving. The gesture is migration, and specifically the no artifacts or art. subtle. The Palestinian people, as a nation racialization of menial labour. The performance started with me and a culture, are actually a very important But I’m still not entirely convinced that transporting the whole kitchen out into the part of this. The best way to describe this is the complexity of the work would performance space, running from one end through the relation of occupation to come out for the guests. How do you of the museum to the other. I always start Palestinian land and resources — literally, insert the uncomfortable and uncanny FUSE – In contrast to the mezze-style a performance with what happens behind eating off people’s backs. moments with enough force to shake dinner performances, your Skype the scenes. I wanted everything to be perfect them up? cooking performances with your mother for my mom. The cooking itself was kind of FUSE – That’s a level of meaning that involve lots of dialogue and infor- a disaster actually. The festival couldn’t get your guests can only get at if they BA – When I performed this gesture mation for your audience to consume. a standing stove so they ended up getting know certain things. If they realize that at Don Blanche, I said, “You are about to eat Describe the set-up you used for your a portable gas stove. The pot basically took the mezze is specifically Palestinian dinner off the artist’s body, of Palestinian performance in Mexico City. over both elements, not quite being heated and not Turkish or Lebanese, for origin. You eat at your own risk.” I still feel by both. I was worried that part of it would be example. The identity markers they’d conflicted about this wording, but I felt that BA – It was part of the Transmuted cooked and the other not. But it worked out. have from your body — the colour of I had to tell them this. I didn’t know most International Performance Art Festival, your skin, your hair — aren’t necessarily of the people there, so I felt that they had to the theme of which was “Non-Canadian FUSE – Where was your mother at the going to be read as Palestinian. know this little piece of information. I think Canadians.” The performance was at a small time of the performance? Depending on how much access it had a huge impact. contemporary art museum in the centre BA – She was in Dubai, where she lives now. She was on Skype, and her image was projected onto a wall. It was almost 10 p.m. in Mexico City, and 6 a.m. her time.

FUSE – Did you come up with the menu together?

BA – I told her what I was doing and she asked a lot of great questions: “What’s the context? What’s the space? What is the festival about?” Because the space was a chapel, this became a key factor.

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / ALZERI

22 23 preserved lemons; pickled tomatoes; all BA – Yes, if they break the jar maybe Coffee kinds of preserves. a bit can be salvaged, but if they mix oil into And when you say “Palestinian the flour, everything is ruined. This is the FUSE – How has Palestinian cuisine preserves,” you’re not talking about little occupier’s mind, anything to torture people. been affected by the occupation? mason jars, you’re talking about 10-litre jars. My basic motive for these projects is This reflects generosity and abundance and to archive, and that’s a form of preservation BA – Fish dishes are an obvious the way people like to eat and offer food too. So much effort goes into demolishing example. My family doesn’t come from a city to their guests, but now also because of the Palestinian culture. For me, working with near the shore, which might explain why nature of their life conditions under Israeli food is very reflexive, and a way of recog- I only know of one Palestinian fish dish. But occupation. Sometimes they’re under siege nizing labour of mothers, specifically in I have asked my family why there isn’t much or lockdown, and can’t leave their houses Palestinian culture. It’s also a form of cultural fish in Palestinian dishes in general, and as for days and days, they can’t even go to diplomacy. Getting to people through far as my mother remembers, it was because the corner store. And that has profoundly everyday activities. Preservation is a specific they didn’t have access to fish because it affected the way that people eat. In any technique for cuisine and also for resistance. was either restricted or prohibited. When other culture, you wouldn’t care to keep that Both things come together: pleasure in the Palestinian fishermen take a chance and go much in your pantry. But people stockpile colours and flavors and the social history fishing in occupied areas, they risk being shot and keep even more. Every house has of food, and resistance to occupation. at. So there’s a lot of risk involved in eating a good-sized pantry, a little room that is full Together they make the character of fish. There’s only one dish I can think of that of jars of preserves: kilos of goat cheese in Palestinian cuisine. has fish, and it’s called sayadeyeh. It calls water and salt, olives and pickles, and big for whatever fish is available at the market. quantities of sugar and flour to make bread Thanks to Dennis Hale and Mike Sharpe, visual artists and woodworkers, for co-designing and Communities in Palestine, or outside, and dessert for days to come. It’s carried fabricating The Mobile Kitchen Lab. in the camps in Jordan or Syria, hold onto on, though a little bit less so, in the diaspora. their culinary tradition because it’s one of the My parents don’t live in Palestine, but they Introduction and interview by Gina Badger for FUSE. few things left in the culture that is still lively. have a good-sized pantry full of labneh and Basil AlZeri is a Toronto-based Palestinian artist working They’re also quite rigid about it. In my makdous and zeitoun. in performance, video, installation, food and public art interpretation, the character of Palestinian One of the most valuable things in interventions. His artwork is grounded in his practice as cuisine is connected historically to the people’s houses is their pantry. It’s so an art educator and community worker, and engages with preservation of food. Preserved foods are important for survival. When Israeli soldiers the intersection of everyday actions and life necessities. AlZeri’s performance work has been exhibited in Toronto extremely prominent in many recipes, even raid people’s houses, they go straight for (FADO, Nuit Blanche, Whipper Snapper Gallery), Quebec more since the occupation started. The the pantry. I have not witnessed this myself, (Fait Maison 14), Winnipeg (Central Canadian Centre for techniques are ancient; there were all kinds but Israeli soldiers will go and mix things Performance) and Mexico City (Transmuted International á of ways to make food last before up in the pantry, to starve the family. They Performance Art Festival, Performancear O Morir). Mujudarah refrigeration was invented. You know: labneh Upcoming projects include a public performance project will mix things together: the sugar with the with the Ottawa Art Gallery/Creative Cities Conference (pressed yoghurt in olive oil); big jars with labneh, and the zeitoun with the flour. and performances in Chile and Argentina in 2013. On 15 tons of green and black olives; makdous March, FUSE and Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto will (eggplant in olive oil and stuffed with walnuts FUSE – As opposed to just breaking co-present AlZeri’s performance at Xpace Cultural or chilies, depending on what resources the jar, they’d actually mix them? Centre as part of the FADO Emerging Artists Series, . sight.specific. are available); different kinds of pickles;

FUSE – What was the meal? cuisine because it’s a very accessible dish. BA – It’s flavoured very simply. You cut Okra Casserole (Seneyet Bamyeh) The lentils and the onions come from a lot of onions, preferably red, for the colour, BA – My mother suggested that we Palestinian land, and rice is always readily and you sauté them in olive oil, and then you Okra make mujudarah, a very simple dish. It’s available. These things have become add a big spoonful of cumin, two spoonfuls Beef, in chunks the size of a little bird's head a very popular dish, and an affordable one, even more important with the occupation, of sumac, salt and pepper, and some people Onions, finely chopped Crushed garlic which people have been making for because many other ingredients can be add a little bit of coriander. The cumin and Tomatoes, finely chopped hundreds of years. It’s made of lentils, rice, scarce. Mujudarah is also important because sumac are key. Once you season and sauté Salt and pepper onions and spices. It is served with a yoghurt you can feed a lot of people. I mean, people the onions, you add them to the half-cooked Hot pepper and cucumber salad and a green salad. used to have huge families. My mom’s family rice, which is in another pot, so that the We picked this dish because of its origins in has eleven people, my dad’s family has spices and onion infuse the rice, and then In a skillet over low heat, cook the beef, garlic, onions, and hot pepper in olive oil. Add the tomatoes and one to the city of Nazareth, which is famous thirteen, and those are average-sized you add the cooked lentils. There is a saying: two cups of boiling water. Let simmer until tender and for being the city of Jesus’s exile from families. So mujudarah is very resourceful kol habeh be-habetha, which means every cooked. Place the uncooked okra in a casserole, add the Bethlehem — it’s called the Nazareth and practical. How much you eat mujudarah grain is an individual grain. When it’s mushy, beef mix and season with salt and pepper. Cover the mujudarah, the mujudarah Nasraouyeh. We is also an indication of the class system. that’s when the dish fails. So you cook the casserole with tin foil and cook for about twenty minutes thought that because of the religious context There’s a saying, “they eat mujudarah every lentils al dente, about three-quarters through. on the stovetop. Remove the tin foil and broil it in the oven for about ten minutes. of the museum, this specific dish would day.” It’s a common and loved dish, but if You mix it before everything gets too soft, fit perfectly, and make a link to Catholic your family eats it every day, that’s because and you let it finish cooking together, so once culture in Mexico City. you can’t afford anything else. it’s done it’s a unified dish, one mujudarah. Mujudarah is traditional to the Christian And you serve it with crispy caramelized Palestinian community, as a meal for lent. FUSE – Can you describe how onions. It’s really tasty. And it’s a bit of a When I talked to my grandma about it, she you make mujudarah? picnic dish as well. People make a big pot of said it was very important in Palestinian it, and bring the onions separately, and salad.

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / ALZERI

24 25 A Game of Shater Hassan Haitham Ennasr

1 1 9 11 12

I honestly can’t quite remember, à Start with (1) Googling Shater Hassan was a bit In most evenings, while my grand- After reading all of the text blocks When I first started making games, but I want to say my first recollec- à The missing numbers (3) (4) disappointing. I wasn’t expecting mother was telling her story, she in the game (including those you both digital and analog, I was in tion of Shater Hassan is from age (6) (7) (8) are for you to write Teta to unveil herself from the after- would fall asleep before we did. have already written, (3) (4) (6) love with the medium and its af- seven or eight. One thing that Teta’s life as a series of search results, (7) and (8), adopt the perspective fordances, and frustrated with the à The game rules are in (11) The next evening, she would either many grandchildren demanded of and she didn’t, not immediately continue telling the story or start of a woman who spent her child- industry’s tendency toward orien- her was stories, and stories she gave. à (12) and (13) are anyway. First search lead to a bunch over, adding details that were not hood in Yaffa during the 1930s in talist, misogynistic, and heteronor- supplementary reading à Teta (1) or (2) of restaurants, a few searches in I there the night before, letting go of order to write a detailed account of mative culture. It didn’t take me à Shater Hassan (10) realized that the results for Shatter other details, and telling events in a Shater Hassan as either: long to realize that I shared that Hassan with two “t”s are different different order each night. a) a cup of coffee love and frustration with an entire than those with one t. Then came à Continue (10) b) a cigarette community of game designers and my searches for Shatter Hassan in c) an orange developers. Anna Anthropy’s Rise Arabic: an Egyptian folk tale; that of the Videogame Zinesters (Seven didn’t ring a single bell. Finally, an Stories Press, 2012) explains that entry in a blog titled “A story from love-frustration relationship a bit Palestinian folklore: Shater Hassan.” further. She explains how the vid- à Teta (1) or (2) eogame industry is a self-feeding à Blog entry (2) engine; the game designers create games for very specific target audiences, who in turn grow up and become the next generation 2 of game designers, continuing the cycle. Anthropy also points out that While searching for my grand- in parallel to the industry, there are mother’s Shater Hassan on the in- numerous tools and technologies ternet, I eventually found one story allowing designers to self-publish. with a section that I remember my This opening-up means that video- grandmother telling. Shater Hassan games are no longer controlled by a select few. Instead, videogames came to a great ghoul and greeted 13 him. The ghoul said something are being made by a thriving com- 2 munity of people who are pushing 5 that can be loosely translated to: if your greeting didn’t precede your Games, at their very core, are the medium into exciting politically My grandmother’s name was speaking, the mountains would systems. Gender is a system, colo- and creatively charged frontiers. Ghanimah, her grandchildren called “But is it really a game?” now be hearing your bones break. nialism is a system, and rituals are à Systems (13) her Teta or Sitti (colloquial for is a question that many of us might Shater Hassan asked him for systems. One way in which games à This retelling (11) grandmother), and her children have while looking at this project. We something, the ghoul said that his engage with these systems can be always referred to her as Hajjeh. A probably ask this because the people sister would know. He also told 10 explicitly topical, where the content Hajj or Hajjeh is what you would call who make up the game industry — Shater Hassan the following: if you of the game can be about gender someone who has been on pilgri- the most visible people creating see her grinding salt and her eyes or colonialism or any topic. Another mage to the Haj. For Teta’s children and consuming games — have pref- are fire, don’t go near her. If you find Shater Hassan, being mostly an form of engagement comes from it was as endearing as mother, but erences as to what they believe are her grinding sugar, and her breasts oral tradition, has been told by the interaction of both content and 3 4 it also carried a heavy dimension good games. This circle of people are flipped behind her shoulders, countless grandmothers in countless form. If a game is to take the proper- of respect and appreciation. The creating and consuming games is nurse from her right breast, then variations. My current realization of ties, rules, and structures of a system refugee mother of nine, widowed not only relatively homogenous, it nurse from her left breast, and Shater Hassan comes from recol- like colonialism, and then have them at 27 and storyteller extraordinaire is also privileged, which means that ask her your question. Beyond that lecting and linking bedtime stories be a part of the game system, the 7 8 didn’t really care how she was these preferences turn into defini- paragraph, I can’t tell for certain if by my grandmother. These recol- outcome of the interaction between addressed. But for us she was a force tions, and anything that doesn’t the online account bares any other lections are accompanied by an the game and the player is an inter- of nature, above and beyond re- conform to these preferences has resemblance to my grandmother’s online script that vaguely sounded action between the player and 6 spect, love, or any other emotion to be defended as to why it is a story. Or if Teta ever told the whole like those bedtime stories. This colonialism, even if the game is not you’re supposed to have for a parent game. So instead of answering that story from beginning to end. game will be yet another variation explicitly about colonialism. or grandparent, so we needed every question, I request you don’t ask it. à Grinding salt (3) of the greater Shater Hassan story. à Game (5) or (11) term we could get to address her. à This game (11) à Grinding sugar (4) à Game (11) or (5) à Colonialism (7) à Teta’s stories (9) à Indie games (12) à Teta’s stories (9) à Online bedtime stories (6) à Yaffa (8) Palestine – Palestine Palestine – Palestine Palestine – Palestine The Credits of My Next Movie Kamal Aljafari

The snapshots you are looking at were taken from an Israeli film musical from the 1970s, which I projected in a dark room one cold winter night in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I wanted to revisit the streets of my childhood in Jaffa. The film opens with the names of the actors and those involved in making the film — here was nothing unusual about it. These credits will become the credits of my next film, being created now. They include the names of the actors, the director, the producer and the names of those who worked in each film unit, who took part in the cinematic occupation of Jaffa. These shots are from one of the closing scenes in the same film. The actors are performing a song about democracy, which in my film I call the “Massacre of the City.” After the 1948 occupation, the Tel Aviv municipality gradually tore down the Arab city of Jaffa; thousands of houses and entire neighbourhoods disappeared. In the 1950s, the military curfew was lifted, but within another decade another invasion, a fictional one, began. Streets were blocked off, the shooting started again. In 1963, Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan produced the first post-1948 film in Jaffa, entitled Eldorado. In 1973, he returned to direct the most successful Israeli musical of all time, Kazablan, which was also a hit in the United States. Chuck Norris began his attack on Jaffa in Golan’s 1986 film The Delta Force, and later returned in Delta Force 3. The Delta Force helped Golan become a B-movie Hollywood mogul, and he headed up the production house Cannon Films. In the 1980s and 1990s, Golan shot a dozen films in Jaffa, turning it into his private film set. Pitting Western heroes against Middle-Eastern terrorists, his films are low budget, made on the cheap, and Jaffa is their free prop: a ruined, Oriental anyplace that he had a free hand in ruining further. For the finale of The Delta Force, the Tel Aviv municipality let Golan explode a grand Palestinian schoolhouse overlooking the ocean — the Nakba as special effect. Other Israeli and American directors would follow in Golan’s footsteps, and Appointment With Death (1988), Rambo III (1988), Not Without My Daughter (1991) and The Order (2001) were all shot there. These are among the titles of Jaffa’s cinematic occupation. Over the years its cast comes to include Peter Ustinov, George Sanders, Sally Field, Audie Murphy, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme. At their mercy, Jaffa is re-imagined not only as Israeli Yafo but as Beirut, Tehran, Cairo and Jerusalem; it’s the battleground for every conceivable Middle-Eastern conflict, every Western projection of fear. In all those films, Jaffa is a city where Arabs no longer exist. Preserved in this footage is also a city, alive again in moving image, its gradual destruction over the decades chronicled film by film. I find myself watching them over and over again to revisit the places of my childhood. I watch frame by frame to stop by at the shop on the corner where I once sat with my grandfather. I wander around the old city, and catch a view of the grand seaside neighbourhood of Manshiye that has since been entirely bulldozed and replaced by a grassy seaside promenade. These films compose an album of mementoes for me. I watch them to return to Jaffa. I watch them as their heroes are killing Jaffa. The time has come to intervene!

Kamal Aljafari is a graduate of the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, where he received the visual arts award of the city of Cologne in 2004. His films include The Roof (2006), which won the Best International Video Award at the 2008 Images Festival in Toronto, and Port of Memory (2009), which received the Prix Louis Marcorelles from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was a featured artist at the 2009 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, and in 2009-2010 he was the Benjamin White Whitney fellow at Harvard University. He is currently the head of the directing program at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. INSIDE DECOLONIZING The Politics of Visibility in ARCHITECTURE Common Assembly Nishat Awan and Cressida Kocienski

The Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) [1] is part of a long-term project that deals with the spatial complexities of decolonization through an interrogation of the relationships between law, spatial production and colonial practices in Palestine and Israel . A significant body of DAAR’s work attempts to reveal how the operat-ion of Israeli spatial and legal regimes within the Occupied Territories can produce extra-territorial spaces and grey zones wherein legal jurisdictions fade. For DAAR, these spaces of ambiguity are significant for their role in revealing the workings of power — they are places where such colonial and territorial power can be understood, challenged and perhaps undermined. Their work exper- iments with narrations of the landscape under occupation, and strives to be both intellectually and architecturally propositional.

[1] DAAR is described as a platform for collective production. It is based in Beit Sahour, a small suburb of Bethlehem in the West Bank, within the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was founded in 2007 as Decolonizing Architecture, by Beit Sahour- based architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, and London- based architect Eyal Weizman. In this article, we will consider the rhetoric of DAAR in onto the site of the parliament building, taken to represent a form relationship to their work Common Assembly, which was produced of politics under threat in the region. A principal reference was the during a summer 2011 residency in which we participated. The work February 2011 cleaning of Cairo’s Tahrir Square by volunteer was conceived in response to the unfinished Palestinian parliament members of the public, in the wake of mass protests demanding building in the West Bank, the prospective Palestinian bid for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. This was seen as a recognition at the United Nations [2] and the unfolding backdrop of manifestation of the triumph of the political power of the commons, the Arab Spring. Considering the recent expansions and contractions and the claiming of common ownership of civic space. in the possibility for a viable two-state solution within this contested One of DAAR’s primary strategies is to work with and territory, [3] we feel it is an important time to examine the ways in inside the lines that slice up the landscape. [6] In Common Assembly, which this work renders visible vital questions about the constitution the physical space taken up by the Jerusalem line as it cuts through and agency of the Palestinian body politic, and its viability in terms the parliament was cleaned to create an ephemeral and symbolic strip of its own claims of decolonization, both within and outside the of common space. This was a staged performance-for-the-camera West Bank. that, because of the inaccessibility of the space to the Palestinian Standing as a disused and incomplete structure, the population, was performed symbolically for them in absentia by the Palestinian Legislative Council building (its official title, but known DAAR residents. to DAAR as the Palestinian parliament) was designed by noted The exhibited work was the installation of a 1:5-scale Palestinian architect Jafar Tukan. It is located in Abu Dis, an outlying sculptural cross-section of the parliament as it appears inside the Jerusalem neighbourhood that used to be a separate village, but has Jerusalem line, transporting this fragment to the site of each gallery now been subsumed into the expanding city. Much of Abu Dis falls outside the Jerusalem line, Israel’s unilaterally declared 1967 border of the city. Close to the parliament building, severing it completely ß â à from Jerusalem, passes the wall that separates the West Bank and Decolonizing Architecture Israel. Significantly for the project, the positioning of the building is Common Assembly (2011). entirely ambiguous: it sits on the Jerusalem line, partly in and partly Production stills. Image courtesy of out of the city, yet entirely physically cut off from it. The exact reason Cressida Kocienski. for this placement is unknown, and its potential political fallout is also in disagreement. Rumours, theories and conspiracies abound — in the tug of war between Israel and Palestine, and between the various Palestinian factions, how did the building land so fortuitously, so awkwardly? Nevertheless, it is certain that the building’s position- ing was the result of political manoeuvring. The Palestinian parliament site was the starting point for the research, design, and film production work that the DAAR residents helped to produce, which also sat within a previously established framework of discourse and exhibited work. The planned outcome of the residency was the touring exhibition Common as a lacquered black object that bisected the space. Presented Assembly, to be shown in Switzerland, the UK and the US. [4] As the in various configurations alongside this intrusive element were title of the exhibition suggests, the nucleus of the work was intended projections of both the six-minute film of the cleaning performance, to be an exploration of the commons, informed by Hardt and Negri’s and grainy black and white images of crowd scenes from historical definition of this concept as “the incarnation, the production, and meetings of the various Palestinian parliaments-in-exile. [7] These the liberation of the multitude.” [5] images produced a spectral assembly of dispersed discussions, Several months into the Arab Spring, there was a removed from their specific context, and with the key figureheads tangible sense of political elasticity in the region brought about by supplanted by images of the audience (although still members the collective uprisings, and it seemed pertinent to raise the question of a political elite) to create an image of a de-localized collective of the Palestinian struggle from within this wider context. The assembly. There were also four brief extracts of interviews with DAAR participants were keen to transpose this idea of collectivity political figures [8] displayed on monitors with headphones. The lines

[2] In September 2011, there was the resumption of negotiations Beaumont, “Israel approves [5] Michael Hardt and appointed by the PLO in 1964 to a formal request by the Chairman between Israel and the Palestin- another 1,200 settlement units Antonio Negri, Empire the first popularly elected of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, for ians leading to a permanent around Jerusalem,” The Guardian, (Cambridge: Harvard University parliament established in 1996. Palestine to be recognized as the two-State solution.” (See “General 25 December 2012, online). The Press, 2000), 303. 194th full member state of the Assembly Grants Palestine insertion of this territorial [8] Ahmed Qurei, PLO Member United Nations, by the General Non-member Observer State expansion into the remaining [6] Previously, DAAR has worked and Former President of the Assembly, based on the pre-1967 Status at UN,” UN News Centre, fragments of the West Bank, if it with the Green Line, which was Palestinian Legislative Council; borders, as part of a campaign 29 November 2012, online.) This materializes in the months ahead drawn following the 1949 Basem al-Masri, First Director called Palestine 194. At press time, unprecedented rise in support for and remains unrevoked, will Armistice Agreement, and the General of the Palestinian this has not yet been voted on, the political legitimacy of the effectively sever the territory lines of the 1994 Oslo Accords. In Parliament; Fajr Harb, an activist; and at the prospect of a veto from Palestinian diaspora, however completely in half, and obliterate each case, they have interpreted and Khalil Tafakji, a cartographer the US, the request was scaled marginal it may be in concrete the chances for establishing a their ambiguous physical and legal (a highly politicized occupation in á back to an upgrade to non-mem- terms, immediately provoked contiguous neighbour state for definition as bestowing these the region). The fifth video of Decolonizing Architecture ber observer state. plans for a retaliatory measure of Israel. geopolitical borders with a spatial Oxford academic and former Common Assembly (2011). architectural occupation from thickness. PLO Representative Karma Installation shot at CAN [3] In November 2012, Palestine Israel—the building of 3,000 new [4] Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Nabulsi was from a lecture held in (Centre d'art Neuchâtel), 17/09 to 28/10/2011. was granted status as a settlement homes in the E1 area, Switzerland; Nottingham [7] These videos were from Ramallah organized by Fajr Harb. Image courtesy of non-member observer state in the to the East of Jerusalem, Contemporary, UK; The James publicly accessible video archives Sully Balmassière and CAN. United Nations, which then previously kept clear under Gallery at The City University of available online, and ranged from “express[ed] the urgent need for international pressure (see Peter New York (CUNY), US. depictions of the first parliament

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / AWAN / KOCIENSKI

38 39 of their narratives, set against the figures of the multitudes and the exactly can be represented within the democratic processes it could parliament, often cut across one another, producing a microcosmic offer. This particular problem continues to haunt the Palestinians, and view of the terrain in all its complexity. was one of the more sympathetic criticisms voiced during the 2011 The Palestinian parliament building was commissioned push for acknowledged political sovereignty at the UN. It flagged the following the Oslo Accords [9] (1993–1995), and construction resultant loss of the right of the Palestinian Liberation Organization began in 1996. It was a time when many believed that the reality (PLO) to be the sole representative of the scattered Palestinian polity, of a Palestinian nation-state was tangible, and the parliament was meaning that the premature crystallization of Palestine through imagined as the seat of government in East Jerusalem. Basem a so-called back door would exclude the future participation of all who al-Masri, who was the first Director General of the Palestinian live outside its borders, restricting or removing their right of return parliament, noted in an interview that in order to be able to set up (in whatever context this could be negotiated). In a sense, the failure an interim parliament in Ramallah, [10] there had to be tangible of the frozen architecture, bifurcated by the mysterious, unilateral plans in place to create its permanent successor in Jerusalem. He border, at least allows for the discussions to remain pluralistic. It also also spoke in detail about the formation of the building in parallel attests to the problems of transposing standard parliamentary forms with the drafting of the constitution, which required the definition of into this difficult context. the capital, the physical seat of the government, and the drafting and These difficulties are also revealed in the workings of the implementation of systems of governance. In 1996, al-Masri Palestinian National Council (PNC) and the PLO, which, despite being contributed to the decision to place the building in East Jerusalem, large organizations, were only capable of dealing with the specifically despite allegedly being under pressure from Israel to give up political needs of Palestinians. There were no established systems East Jerusalem in favour of Abu Dis. To remain in Ramallah would for producing and managing civic infrastructures — neither access to have signified both the ideological and likely territorial surrender of drinking water or health care, nor the protections of an official military. East Jerusalem. While this is clearly a difficult challenge still to be fully resolved, it can The Oslo Accords and the resulting efforts to create an also be imagined as an opportunity for thinking civic infrastructures administrative infrastructure of governance did not, of course, result as common infrastructures, governed and cared for by the collective. in the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the spectacular Fajr Harb, a Palestinian activist involved in the recent youth movement, failure of this process is an on-going matter of recent history. The made the point in one of the Common Assembly interviews that there building itself also remains unfinished. Today it stands as a blank- is a very pressing desire for taking control, if not of the top layers of faced ziggurat, minus windows and doors, but full of trailing pipes, policy-making, then certainly of the bolstering of civic administration wires, and feral animals whose traces are archived in the dust that and of those aspects of governance that affect everyday life. While has settled on the floors of the interior. It is a sublime and cinematic the resistance to and pressures of Israeli occupation certainly bring ruin that metonymically echoes the curtailed nature of the Palestinian about a form of collectivity, how not only to be reactive to the dream of nationhood. occupation, but also to propose civic initiatives that can work within The building is hounded by its manifold lack of political the very limited self-governance that Palestinians have, remains an agency, whether in relation to the refugee diaspora or the residents open question. of Gaza, neither of whom can physically access it. Even if it were During the DAAR residency, the commons were to be complete, the difficulties of organizing participation and travel would explored in the relationship between the building and the Jerusalem certainly act to narrow the field of regional representation. Its crippling line as a potential method of “deterritorializing the Palestinian proximity to the separation wall only adds to the complexity of the parliament,” [11] as the tagline of the exhibition title states. [12] smoke and mirrors surrounding the truth of its establishment. In the Because the parliament building sits on top of the Jerusalem line, it Common Assembly exhibition, this is gently revealed by contradictions was this particular detail that triggered the format of the investigation. that emerge in some of the interviews, and reinforced by a number But the Jerusalem line is itself a slippery concept — in order to maintain of labyrinthine political rumours that circulate within the general spatial fluidity, its positioning was never consolidated on a map, and populace, related to us as anecdotes. For now, the building has been so it exists only as a series of coordinates stored in a hidden archive, placed under the guardianship of Al-Quds University to prevent it from which the line may be summoned by the District Surveyor of from being damaged or interfered with by Israel, and so it is locked Jerusalem. Inaccessible to those who live on the land it might occupy, anonymously behind a high gate with an occasional security guard it becomes a soft weapon for land grabs, or a tool for keeping at bay patrol. The structure does not seem to factor into conversations the expanding Palestinian population, bisecting buildings and regarding future political situations, and so it appears to have been stranding citizens on the wrong side. This behaviour of the line means ignored as an icon in favour of the prolonged symbolic relationship that it is a continual source of legal challenges. with the Dome of the Rock, which even non-Muslim residents also DAAR worked in consultation with a lawyer, Ghiath Nasser, á appear to regard as the symbolic idée fixe for the unattainable who highlighted one particular case that perfectly demonstrates Decolonizing Architecture Palestine nation. the ambiguous nature of the line, as well as its legal consequences. Common Assembly (2011). The unfinished nature of the building also mirrors the The case centres around a house in Kafr ’Aqab, a neighbourhood Installation shot at CAN (Centre d'art Neuchâtel), unfinished nature of the political administrative apparatus of situated on the Jerusalem periphery. A family had applied for 17/09 to 28/10/2011. Palestinian governance, raising important questions about who disability pension payments for their daughter but were informed that Image courtesy of Sully Balmassière and CAN. [9] In 1993, Israel initiated secret would withdraw from certain Jerusalem, currently serving as the Within the architecture of the [12] The title of the exhibition in negotiations with PLO representa- areas of Gaza and the West Bank, de facto administrative capital. parliament this was enacted as the Neuchâtel was Common Assembly: tives in Oslo, their first face-to- and provided for the creation of a weakening of its designed spatial Deterritorializing the Palestinian face meeting. These produced the Palestinian interim self- [11] In Anti-Oedipus (1972), programs, which were then Parliament. This was shortened to Israel-PLO Declaration of government, the Palestinian Deleuze and Guattari defined the reterritorialized as a container for Common Assembly in subsequent Principles, which was signed in National Authority (PNA). concept of deterritorialization as the commons inside the space of exhibitions. Washington in September, and the disruption of order and the line. contained mutual recognition of [10] The largest Palestinian city in decontextualization of a set of both parties, promises that Israel central West Bank, to the north of relations in a space or territory.

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / AWAN / KOCIENSKI

40 41 since the Jerusalem line bisects their house, they could not claim formed by the pencil lead, whereas the Jerusalem line is a more tion in the project within Palestine. [18] DAAR did organize a series enough in certain contexts, the necessary embedding of architecture social security. According to the ruling, “54.20% of the property is topologically fluid entity. Despite the line officially having no consistent of public events to accompany the exhibitions in an attempt to link within the spaces of our everyday lives, and the propositional nature outside of the Jerusalem jurisdiction area. 45.80% of the property is thickness, the width demarcated by the cleaning performance was the work with concurrent and transnational political movements and of the work means that for architects, the move of making visible is inside the Jerusalem jurisdiction area.” [13] Yet, the accuracy of the sufficient to give it a symbolic physicality both within the moving discourses such as Occupy and the Arab Spring. Linking a specific always followed by a “what next?” DAAR is careful not to describe this figures revealed nothing about the nature of the problem and led image work and the sculpture in Common Assembly. discussion about the Palestinian question to these broader work as architecture, but as an operation performed upon existing only to increasingly bizarre arguments over whether the front door Perhaps the attempt to use this as a space from which movements was a welcome move, but one that remained curtailed architecture. The question remains as to what it has achieved in the of the house opened inside Jerusalem or not, or whether the more to think new modes of political participation was problematic, but through the residency’s lack of direct engagement within the context of the parliament building. Perhaps it is therefore a matter intensely occupied parts of the house were in the percentage located it was this impulse, together with the desire to link to the cleaning Palestinian territories, or with the Palestinian diaspora. Without such of viewing this work as an art project rather than an architectural one, within Jerusalem. Dividing the time spent in the house according to of Tahrir Square, that drove the ambition to create an ephemeral participation, the work shifts from an open-ended line of inquiry a pedagogical project rather than an activist one, a project probably everyday activities was, in the end, a futile course of action. What the and symbolic strip of common space into which may be imagined to a site-specific diagrammatization built for a gallery space. still in the making — a piece of research upon which DAAR will case reveals is that despite its official status as vector, the Jerusalem a mode of dialogue and participation. Furthermore, and quite signif- Yet, within the fragments of the project there did emerge surely build. line adopts a certain thickness in the practices of the District Surveyor, icantly, the Jerusalem line represents an illegal border, unilaterally a desire to engage a commons built upon new notions of governance. To borrow a method of thinking about the parliament from or in the practices of those who challenge his decrees. Rather than declared by Israel in contravention of international treaties. Arguably, as the most participatory parts of the project, the interviews Ernesto Laclau’s essay “What do Empty Signifiers Matter to Politics?” revealing the official co-ordinates of the line, the surveyor describes Yet, to think the common as both a space for, and a mode did establish a context for this to happen. If the project had provided [21] there needs to be an “empty” space into which geopolitical it in relation to an existing feature, such as a road. This move of, political participation requires both a deterritorializing re- a forum for the interviewees to engage with a wider audience, away history-making can pour. The empty building acts as a signifier for introduces a measure of ambiguity, transforming the vector into a appropriation (which our gesture could be construed as) and also from the structures and failings of the fledgling state apparatus, such a space, able to draw in the conflict-ridden and chaotic alliances slightly indeterminate zone. In other cases, the practices of everyday a reinvention. This reinvention was necessarily missing, since the the commons as a site for informal and collective polities may well built in opposition to the frameworks of the external oppressor state. life give the line a thickness, as was attempted in the zoning of the people best placed to do it, the Palestinian population, were absent. have been prompted. Due to the participatory limits of the project, At the same time, through its failure, it is also able to represent those house into sleeping and living areas. The elusive and highly As Hardt and Negri have commented in relation to their articulation the interviews with activist Fajr Harb and other members of the aspects that cannot be homogenized into a functioning official interpreted quality of the line gives it an ambiguity that can become of the common, this reinvention should consist of new forms of Palestinian political landscape only served to highlight this need. All political system because of the Gordian knot of obstructions. The a space in which to work. governance, new institutions and new modes of acting. [17] In the approached the common in their rhetoric, but it seemed impossible discourse around this work is thus incredibly valuable in making DAAR’s focus on the lines that separate Palestine began moment of our cleaning on behalf of, rather than cleaning with (as to evoke a strong sense of this outside the things in common that visible the spatial conditions of the occupation in the mostly Western with another, more concrete, line: the Green Line. Established as part was the case in Tahrir Square), the political imaginary was restricted Palestinians share, like semantic erasure, frequent struggles and cities of UN veto-ers and abstainers. of the Rhodes Armistice Agreement of 1949, it split historical to a discursive space. interrupted access to water. In engaging in this process, we were left Palestine in two. As the story goes, it was marked out on the hood Perhaps the inchoate, ruined nature of the space of the to wonder what could have been. Nishat Awan is a writer and spatial of a military jeep by the two commanders who agreed on its parliament forms too perfect an image of the false starts and The wider rhetoric of DAAR’s work is based on their practitioner whose research interests positioning, Moshe Dayan and Abdallah al-Tall. The line was drawn frustrations that have saturated the history of the Palestinian journey definition of decolonization. They write: “Decolonization is a counter include the production and representation of migratory spaces, inquiries into the in a green grease pencil on a large scale map of the region, so when towards sovereignty. The incompleteness of the building, its aban- apparatus that seeks to restore to common use, to fantasy and play, topological as method and alternative the map is reproduced at a 1:1 scale, the line’s spatial referent can donment, and the claims and counter-claims surrounding its what the colonial order had separated and divided. The goal of modes of architectural practice. She holds be anywhere between 15 and 50 metres wide. For DAAR, the area location, can all be read as microcosms for the wider Palestinian decolonization is the construction of counter apparatuses that find a PhD in Architecture and is co-author captured by the thickness of the line is crucial; it exists in a legal limbo political situation. Reading the building thus, as an archaeology of new uses for the abandoned structures of domination.” [19] Did our of Spatial Agency (Routledge, 2011) and can be claimed by neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis. the conflict, may narrate a complex history, but does it offer any new intervention restore the parliament building to common use? The and co-editor of Trans-Local-Act (aaa-PEPRAV, 2011). She was architect A similar thinking was to be applied to the line that cut insights? Nuance emerges in the narrative of the exhibition from parliament is a Palestinian building, and many of its failings are in residence with DAAR in 2011. She is across the parliament building, which was considered an anomic the contradictory anecdotes of its inception within the interview certainly underpinned by the occupation and Western complicity. a member of the art/architecture collective space, [14] that is, a space without law, or, as Nicola Perugini states, videos — yet the building itself can only point to its own failure. But the building itself does not require decolonization as such; OPENkhana and is a Lecturer in a space in which the law can be questioned. [15] In DAAR’s The troubling paradox of this work is that it necessarily rather, it is the line that has been deployed solely by the occupier Architecture at University of Sheffield, UK. work, therefore, there was an attempt to define a common space accepts the Jerusalem line as a presence in the landscape, however that must be profaned. [20] Cressida Kocienski holds an MFA in Art in Palestine that is necessarily anomic. This point is especially unilaterally declared, and perhaps even serves to fetishize it. But the Was a counter apparatus created? Perhaps these Writing from Goldsmiths, London. Working important in the context of the pernicious methods that Israel uses line is traced by occupational infrastructures, with their employment ambitions are too lofty. The installation is ultimately pedagogical between video, performance and text, for annexing land; many areas are designated as belonging to the of the technologies that enforce the presence of its cheese-wire (for contemporary art audiences outside Palestine), but it is not a her research concerns spatial production state because the land registry is either absent or antiquated, topology, and therefore attests to its inescapable there-ness. Working prospective model for participation or decolonization as described and modes of narration. She collaborates with architects Nishat Awan and Phil a legacy of the old British and Ottoman systems of apportioning land. with the line as a legally negotiable or unclaimed space within which above. It is a spatial graft of the idea of a European commons Langley as OPENkhana, and is co-editor Or, they are designated state land when areas have been left to make visible forms of colonization may lead to the Pyrrhic victory enacted by Western actors with the necessary citizenships to grant of the experimental publishing platform uncultivated for a period of time (even when landowners have been of the land inside the lines being made too visible, and thus have its us almost unparalleled civilian access across all the shifting boundary The Institute of Immaterialism. She was deliberately denied access). There are many ways state land can be ambiguity forcibly erased. lines, and out into a West-facing exhibition infrastructure. There is filmmaker in residence with DAAR in 2011. inexplicably absorbed wholesale into projected Israeli infrastructure, For us, this concern was echoed within the Common a marked difference in the ways in which this work operates and She has worked collaboratively with Art on the Underground; James Taylor Gallery; even if defined as a nature reserve, which cannot be built upon. [16] Assembly installation, where the film of our performative cleaning activates in the sites of production (West Bank) and reception South London Gallery; Whitechapel Gallery; Thus, the notion of the common as anomic space stands of the Jerusalem line was foregrounded. It raised interesting (white cube galleries). If making colonization visible to those who ICA, and Resonance FM. Her films have in opposition to the concept of public land as state land. This questions, in light of ourselves both as participants and in the otherwise have the luxury of ignoring it is part and parcel of been screened at the Benaki Museum, manoeuvre allows DAAR to think the anomic space of the line’s subsequent dissemination of the work. There is a strongly perform- decolonization, then, in this more modest description and scope, the Athens (2010); FormContent, London thickness as a place from which to imagine new modes of political ative aspect to the act, which, since it only circulates in its complete project could be considered a success. The tension in DAAR’s work (2010); and Pleasure Dome and TSV, Toronto (2012). assembly. Yet, as everyone was also aware, these lines are not all form within the reified space of contemporary art galleries outside of between making things visible while also trying to be propositional, equal: the Green Line transfers from the representational space of Palestine, could appear to undermine its claims. There is no public is often observed in the work of architects employing artistic forms the map onto physical space quite perceptibly, as a regular swathe access to this building, and there was no public forum or participa- and modes of production. While making things visible may be

[13] The Jerusalem Regional Labour and Avoiding the Nomic Reason,” re-classify an olive tree as a bush. [18] There was a university course [19] Sandi Hilal et al., “The [20] Giorgio Agamben, [21] Ernesto Laclau, Court Ruling, Bardan vs. The 2011, online. They wanted to claim that the for Palestinian students taught at Morning After: Profaning Profanations (New York: “What Do Empty Signifiers National Insurance Institute, Israel. land was not being actively cultivated Al-Quds University, but Colonial Architecture,” Zone Books, 2007). Matter to Politics?” [16] There were several accounts as “olive bushes just grow there.” conversations across the two sites in Sensible Politics, eds. Meg in Emancipation(s) [14] Giorgio Agamben, State of of the increasingly bizarre tactics were not facilitated. McLagan and Yates McKee (London & New York: Exception (Chicago: University of being used to designate land as [17] Antonio Negri, quoted in (New York: Zone Books, Verso, 1996). Chicago Press, 2003). being uncultivated. One anecdote R-Urban Commons Files/Atelier 2012), 434. [15] Nicola Perugini, “Lines, Legal relates to an Israeli-initiated legal d’Architecture Autogérée, 2012. Voids and Anomic States: Voiding procedure that attempted to

FEATURE FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / AWAN / KOCIENSKI

42 43 In all, the exhibition lingers longer on Janvier’s early work than is strictly I proposed this column This column is my modest effort necessary to demonstrate the route he to FUSE because I was concern- to address this imbalance by followed to reach his mature style(s). And CLOSE ed about the poverty of critical providing frank reviews of recent given the understandably uneven quality of his early efforts, this is ultimately not to the response to recent exhibitions of exhibitions of contemporary artist’s credit. Assuming we accept, for contemporary Indigenous art. For Indigenous art, assessing both example, the career significance of a series READINGS a number of good reasons, our the work and its presentation. The of relatively weak line-drawing portraits from 1962, do we really need to see all three? best and brightest art writers — commitment I have made is to Wanting to focus primarily on Janvier’s Richard William Hill with a few notable exceptions — write only when I feel I can be considerable strengths, however, I was have invested their energies in entirely honest. That’s not always especially interested to see his early exper- curating rather than criticism. A easy, but I don’t see the point iments with automatisme, such as Automatiste Ink Caterpillars (1962). This ink healthy art discourse is predicated otherwise. We’ll see how it goes. drawing is composed of clusters of line-forms on a balance between exhibitions There’s no fool like an honest fool. scattered across the centre of the work. and their critical assessment; Most are organized around a single vertical line, with whimsical dots, lines and dashes we have a lively art scene and projecting or radiating out from the original it merits sincere consideration. mark with tremendous variety. The influence of this sort of spontaneous mark-making is evident throughout Janvier’s abstract work to the extent that it becomes clear that it is a driving engine of his creative process. Many of his most successful abstractions are á structured around bold, sweeping lines or Alex Janvier, Lubicon (1988). brushstrokes that arc out to occupy or divide Acrylic on canvas. the canvas and then are elaborated with a Art Gallery of Alberta collection. Courtesy of the AGA. dense variety of lines, shapes and colours. His enthusiastic engagement with automatisme and other movements in modernist abstraction are what place Alex Janvier Alex Janvier’s retrospective at beginning. Granted, these works, painted Janvier in such an unusual position as an something of a legend within the Indigenous had to do so under the cover of a pseudo- the Art Gallery of Alberta could easily be when the artist was at the Blue Quills Indigenous artist of his generation. That said, art community, despite being less known universality that was in reality, as is now divided into two distinct exhibitions: one Residential School, are juvenilia presented his path was nearly blocked at the outset by outside these circles and neglected in obvious, the projection of the dominant ideas Art Gallery of Alberta a brilliant tour de force of energetic, lyrical primarily for their biographical significance. the paternalism of the federal government. the major histories of abstract painting in Western thought at the time. Think, abstraction, the other a dreadful series My intention then is not to assess their After a successful first two years at the instit- in Canada. for example, of the iconic American critic (Edmonton) of experiments with figuration bordering quality, but rather to note how they anticipate ution that would later become the Alberta Familiar with the intense racism Clement Greenberg criticizing the Toronto 18 / 05 to 19 / 08 2012 on the stereotypical. As a senior Indigenous the artist’s later, troubled relationship to College of Art and Design, Janvier decided and assimilative pressures that Janvier abstract painter Kazuo Nakamura for being artist (Janvier is of Dene Suline and figuration. Both works are painted in the to major in fine arts. Without his consent, the experienced — he once described the “too captured by Oriental ‘taste.’” [3] Janvier Saulteaux descent) and one of the first to Catholic votive tradition with the usual Department of Indian Affairs chose instead situation he grew up in as “Rhodesian” [2] — himself insisted at one point that, “I am declare himself a modernist, Janvier is due pre-Renaissance approach to scale and to enrol him in the commercial art program. I feel compelled to respond to the swirling an artist who happens to be an Indian. I am a serious retrospective. This exhibition, with reliance on familiar, well-codified symbolism, Supportive faculty members Illingworth Kerr space of his abstract canvases as an arena an Indian self that is identified with the Great its apparent desire to represent all aspects although in this case with an Indigenous and Marion Nicoll advocated on his behalf of defiant freedom. Each canvas becomes Spirit and not with the art.” [4] This disavowal of the artist’s long career with equal twist. Our Lady of the Teepee, for example, and Janvier was eventually allowed to major an opportunity to perform this freedom on gives a sense of the conundrum Indigenous emphasis, winds up making a strong case features a Madonna and Child with in fine arts (albeit with reduced financial the most personal terms, giving spontaneous artists faced at the time: it was impossible for the abstract side of his practice and, Indigenous features standing over a tipi and support), graduating with honours in 1960. life to dynamic combinations of line, shape to be both Indigenous and modern. sadly, an equally convincing demonstration dressed in clothing decorated with abstract The fact that he was able to go on to forge and colour that the artist quickly made his In trying to recover the Indigenous of the weakness of his figurative efforts. Plains motifs. It pleased the Catholics and a compelling personal style within the own. But the liberation of abstraction was a influences on Janvier’s modernist works, art The seeds of both tendencies won an honourable mention for Canada at modernist movement, in a milieu that was double-sided gift for an Indigenous artist in historians, and the artist himself, have noted are evident in some of the artist’s earliest the International Vatican Exhibition in Rome. dismissive of or openly hostile to signs of the 1960s. One could be free to the extent the inspiration of northern Plains traditions work on display. In Subconscious #3, a small [1] Such early achievements (however cultural difference, is a tribute to Janvier’s that one remained non-objective; if subject of abstraction. [5] Yet his core stylistic pencil drawing from 1960 when Janvier conservative the venues) paved the way for persistence and ability. This is why he is matter was to enter one’s practice, it often elements — the spontaneous, asymmetrical was still in art school, the elements of his Janvier’s entrance into art school, where finest work can be seen in embryonic form. he appears to have received a first rate Sinuous lines radiate out from a central point, introduction to modernist abstraction. Unfor- [1] Unless otherwise noted, the [2] Quoted in ibid., 7. (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, snaking across the drawing’s surface with tunately, neither of his formative artistic biographical information in this 1972), unpaginated. review comes from Lee-Ann Mar- [3] Quoted in Joan Murray, a graceful, lively energy that is immediately experiences provided the artist with the tin, The Art of Alex Janvier: His Painters Eleven in Retrospect [5] Martin, Alex Janvier, 7-8, and contagious. However, the exhibition opens formal or conceptual tools that he would First Thirty Years, 1960-1990 (Oshawa: Robert McLaughlin Janvier’s biography as posted on with a pair of very early figurative works — need when he returned to figuration later in (Thunder Bay: Thunder Bay Gallery, 1979), 76. his website. Art Gallery, 1993). Martin is [4] Quoted in Jacqueline Fry, Our Lady of the Teepee (1950) and Sacred his career. currently at work on a highly Treaty Numbers 23, 287 and 1171: Heart (1952) — which make a less auspicious anticipated monograph on Janvier. Three Indian Painters of the Prairies

COLUMN FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / HILL

44 45 compositions, the swirling, undulating lines, [6] Before learning of Janvier’s own charac- the canvas with his familiar sweeping arcs, the arcing, tapering shapes — all seem to be terization of the work, I read it more as an but now these shapes describe what are, in his own. Questions of his Indigenous identity homage to the spirit of the Lubicon struggle. effect, a series of imaginary windows through Through this column, I will column, my task is to engage do erupt from time to time in his early It seems to be a lively and affirmative show which to view scenes of life before European document the particular econo- critically with the economies of abstractions in less predictable ways, most of political solidarity: less defeated than contact. In each scene Indigenous figures and MAKING mies of contemporary art that attention, care and reproduction notably in his choice of titles. The relationship Robert Motherwell’s elegies to the Spanish animals occupy a colourful cartoon paradise, between abstract paintings and titles is often Republic, but functioning in a similar a fiction so Romantic and sentimental that emerge through the discursive that are manifested through a vexed one. In the absence of explicit modernist tradition. it would gag Walt Disney. The figures them- events that accompany and public programming. Discursive subject matter, a title can easily overdeter- Janvier’s Indigenous identity was selves verge on the stereotypical, and one IT WORK supplement exhibitions, curatorial events are often expected to mine a viewer’s experience of the work, also referenced through his oft-noted act of is reminded of the criticism of some Harlem and many painters simply numbered their signing his pre-1977 artworks with his treaty Renaissance painters who, it was said, could projects and other mainstage perform a buffering or recupera- canvases to avoid this. Janvier’s abstractions number. This may seem at first like a modest not look beyond internalized stereotypes Maiko Tanaka productions. For many public art tive action — to educate, create do tend to have subjects though, however form of protest, but I suspect one shouldn’t to imagine a liberated vision of the African- institutions, the presentation of dialogue or mediate conflict. oblique, and in his case the significance of underestimate the anger condensed into that American body. [8] This is a pity given titles becomes complicated. At times they small series of marks at the edge of the the rich figurative Plains tradition. But there workshops, roundtables, artists' Through responses to specific relate directly to the subject and inspiration canvas. They become little black holes that is more convincing freedom, liberation talks and the like is a mandated programmed events, I will endea- of a work in a way that is immediately affect the gravitational field of the entire and celebration of life in any of Janvier’s activity, one that is also crucial in vor to activate useful concepts, graspable, while at others they seem more canvas, threatening, maybe, to swallow all abstractions than in this work, and for terms of securing public funding. images and actions that can lead cryptic or personal. that affirmative, lively energy. But perhaps that reason a more convincing political Fly, Fly, Fly (1979), for example, that’s what it means to be a successful expression as well. Despite the predominance of towards creating a new vocabul- was inspired by watching swarms of cluster Indigenous modernist: productively trapped Many artists, including those of these activities, they are unevenly ary of solidarity between actors flies moving across the window of his between hope and negation. The artist claims tremendous ability, have uneven oeuvres, and documented and hardly ever who are entangled in these studio in northern Alberta. The work sets both Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee as I am happy to work my way through Janvier’s thin radiating spokes of black, dark blue, influences, [7] and in Janvier’s art one can lesser works if the reward is Fly, Fly, Fly and assessed critically. With this economies. turquoise, purple, orange and red against see the former’s joy in lively movement and Lubicon. But to make the best case for his a tan linen surface. Other colours appear life-energy tempered to a harder edge at art in an exhibition, a more judicious selection as well, particularly in the central grouping times by a dose of the latter’s sardonic wit. of works is necessary. I don’t know why this of marks and shapes. Several pale yellow The constant tension between the freedom didn’t happen — whether the artist insisted globes also stand out at various points of pure rhythmic energy and the small or the curator was genuinely impressed by across the surface. The lines are thin and eruptions of political anger that occur in their all the work — but the result under-serves elegant, but spiky and barbed with hooks. The margins and titles make the liberty he takes the artist, and therefore the institution and painting becomes at once a stylized record for himself in the abstractions that much its publics as well. This is most evident in of the flies’ swarming movement and an more exhilarating. a centre gallery that exemplifies the divided evocation of their dark bodies and bristly Although Janvier included heart of the exhibition, where Nehobetthe and à Linda Duvall and limbs. For the artist to have been able representational elements from time to time Lubicon face off on opposite walls. Together Peter Kingstone, to so effectively bring forth the unlikely in his early paintings, in the late 1980s he they produce a cacophony. Looking one Living in 10 Easy Lessons (2012). beauty of this experience is a gift of insight took up figuration and figure in the landscape way I find myself thinking of murals I’ve Installation shot. Image courtesy of Gallery 44. to the viewer. scenes as a primary concern. The move seen on high school walls. Looking the By the mid-1980s many of made a certain sense in the context of the other I can imagine how terrific this exhibition Janvier’s titles related directly to Indigenous period. Modernist abstraction had lost its could have been if it had included only the politics. Lubicon (1988), one of the finest avant-garde status under the postmodern good stuff. works in the exhibition, is a lively riot of assault. It was, among other things, repres- shapes, lines and colours set against an entative of the old establishment. At the Richard William Hill is an independent intense, red background. The core of the same time, it was suddenly possible, at writer and curator, and Associate composition appears to grow out from least in some corners of the art world, to Professor of Art History at York University. a densely patterned centre and then tapers address questions of ethnicity outside in elegant arcs and curves out toward the the limited parameters of the modern and The event at Toronto’s Buddies in own expectations and hopes for the event — edge of the canvas. How this image relates the primitive, without being dismissed as Shifty Consent Bad Times theatre was initially publicized as a moment that turned out very useful for me to the political battles of the Lubicon Lake parochial. Janvier courageously took up Living in 10 Easy Lessons a panel discussion. However, from the begin- as I began to understand why there was so Nation is not at all explicit in the work. the challenge, creating a series of large ning, it was clear that it had been modified much tension in the room. Despite these Janvier has reportedly claimed that the use figurative paintings in which he addressed into something less formal. There was no efforts to open up a horizontal scenario for of red in the painting was symbolic of his his political hopes, fears and anger directly Gallery 44 (Toronto) panel of experts on the stage but rather participation, the event seemed destined from political anger about the degradation of the and explicitly in large-scale works for the a circle of chairs implying that the invited the start to turn into a highly polarized discus- environment on which the Lubicon depend, first time. The project was ambitious enough 26 / 10 to 01 / 12 2012 speakers would be mingling with the sion. Clearly there were participants who but I don’t see how one might deduce that to fail spectacularly. audience. Another change was the addition arrived with their minds set on condemning meaning from the work itself; the red appears The exhibition features one of of a third-party facilitator, who opened the socially engaged artwork in question, which to me as a beautiful field upon which the these mural-sized works, Nehobetthe (Land up the event with a request for the audience had apparently crossed some ethical lines. astonishing activity of the painting plays out. before they arrived) (1992). Janvier divided to participate from a place of respect. She The concerns arose from a contro- also had us all take a minute to speak to versial exhibition featuring new work by the person on our left and right about our artists Linda Duvall and Peter Kingstone, [6] Ibid., 40. [8] This question has often been see John Ott, “Labored raised and debated in relation to Stereotypes: Palmer Hayden’s The [7] From Janvier’s official website. the work of Palmer Hayden. For a Janitor Who Paints,” American Art [1] Email exchange with Lise recent exploration of the question, 22, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 102-115. Beaudry, January 2013.

COLUMN FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / TANAKA

46 47 its claims? Embedded in Kingstone and the instructors. Consistent throughout to reinforce the artwork’s claims on the they encompassed, adding fuel to the Duvall’s work are the strong claims that the all ten videos is a shot of either Duvall or notion of consent. In fact, the programming shaming fire. Even when someone from the instructors featured in the videos do in fact Kingstone sitting side by side with one actually worked to contradict and undo the audience asked what the practical danger have the ability to give consent, that they can of the instructors, the seating arrangement strong positions that the work takes. for the women being represented in the consent to sharing their knowledge, and signifying reciprocity or equity between This resulted in creating further posters actually was,no one provided a that the very fact of this sharing affirms the parties. There are clues in the performative discrepancies between those whose thoroughly convincing response, and value of this knowledge. These claims and execution of the works as well. It becomes knowledge was meant to be valorized and instead continued to resort to hearsay, affirmations are evident through the materials obvious in the videos that the questions those whose knowledge was actually scandal and moralizing to maintain their and process of the artwork, and are were prepared beforehand, but the instruc- valorized. For example, at the beginning position and discredit the artistic work. supported by the Adelaide Resource Centre tors are also clearly speaking from their own of the event, when asked by the facilitator In response to an online thread for Women, the community centre that experiences, in their own words, sometimes what the goal of the evening was for on NetTime regarding the consent practices mediated the artists’ interactions with the even ignoring the format of the question them, Duvall said she wanted to learn, while of sex work, Alessandra Renzi asks how instructors. Despite their clarity, these claims and answering on their own terms. Kingstone’s wish was to include more consent informs our own lives: “Ideally, were undermined in the programming of an Furthermore, the artists' responses diversity in his community. What gets consent is not just about a yes or no, but event that failed to acknowledge them, thus to each lesson are measured and calm, as unravelled from these two statements is about degrees of freedom to negotiate losing out on an opportunity to develop a demonstrated by their facial expressions and that learning from diversity is not an innocent something, to ask questions that shape critique consistent with the strength of the the genuine curiosity in their voices. The tone endeavour, nor does it carry an automatic informed choices, to understand one’s artwork’s most challenging claims. What is consistent throughout all the videos, just value. It reveals that this position is one that own boundaries, to say ‘stop’ or ‘I changed can we make of those claims put forth and as one would expect from a reaction to every- emphasizes questioning and learning more my mind’ if necessary and, especially, to retracted? Of the consent given, refused day living skills, no more special or shocking than providing answers — and this is made create safe spaces within which consent can and still shifting? than other, less socially stigmatized skills. possible through the privilege that the artist be given and respected. How does consent In reading the exhibition text Rather than affirming outright the value of affords, which is opposed not only to the inform our unpaid daily sex lives? And (a critical response from independent curator their knowledge, this consistent response street workers’ daily existence, but to social our labour lives” [2] Could this rich and and writer cheyanne turions) and talking helps destabilize the notion that the artists workers’ outcome-based roles. This says politicized notion of consent ground á to the artists, one quickly learns about the are providing some kind of service to a lot about the differences between the a new position from which to counter the Linda Duvall efforts made to foster dialogue and consent the instructors via a legitimization of the material and working conditions and profes- neutralizing and recuperative aspects and Peter Kingstone, Living in 10 Easy Lessons (2012). during the making of the work. These inclu- knowledge they offer. sional ambitions of the various workers of open-ended outreach mandates for Installation shot at Gallery 44. ded the very pivotal support of the Adelaide While these aspects of the work involved. For instance, as one commentator artist-run centres? If anything, the definition Image courtesy of Gallery 44. Resource Centre for Women. The artists and process may support the agency of the observed during the discussion, the project of consent here suggests that what the worked with the centre to frame the instructors and redeem the artwork in some may reap benefits for Ryerson’s Faculty of instructors have been negotiating through instructors’ participation in the project so that way, there are nonetheless certain flaws that Social Work in terms of re-examining the their withdrawal and renegotiations for Living in 10 Easy Lessons, exhibited at tors from the videos were not present to give each of them could each make a decision should be acknowledged. Perhaps these nature of quantitative and qualitative research participation is founded less on whether Gallery 44 (26 October–1 December 2012). their position on the matter, as they had based on full, prior and informed consent. can be best framed through the questions: and challenging the foundations of neoliberal they or their knowledge should be made A series of videos, posters and educational earlier that day opted out of participating. During the public programming, Who is asking the questions, who is control- outcome-based education. But when it visible or not, but rather on the degrees booklets depict the artists being instructed The motivation behind outreach it was revealed that although the instructors ling the means of presentation, and who comes to the instructors themselves, as one of consent in the framing and distribution of on everyday life by ten “street-involved” programming in the context of publically signed consent forms for the use of their benefits in the end? For example, although social worker astutely pointed out, their their knowledge and skills in various contexts. workers, on skills such as doing good funded artist-run culture in Canada is to images in exhibition material, objections set up to play off the archetypal student/ material conditions remain intact despite As such, their withdrawal from the public business as a freelance drug dealer, faking enhance accessibility to exhibitions and other arose as the poster series, which distilled teacher dynamic where the artist asks the the benefits their knowledge produces for programming may have been the sharpest sex with a client and panhandling etiquette. core productions by educating publics scenes and quotes from the lessons, hit worker to impart their knowledge for their other fields. and most revealing intervention of all. The controversy centred on the capability and reaching new audiences. This trend is the streets in the neighbourhoods of the own benefit, the former in fact has all the During the public programming, of the workers to give informed consent. reflected in the aspects of Gallery 44’s instructors. One of them objected to the power in the presentation of this knowledge. the reluctance of the artists to defend the Maiko Tanaka collaborates on curatorial projects at the intersection of art, The artists, along with the programmers of mandate, which emphasizes maintaining an specific image used, and despite the signed Also, by critically asking who asks claims of their artwork also paved the way pedagogy, cultural politics and collective Gallery 44, and even the representatives accessible, open space of exchange and consent form, she managed to renegotiate the questions, we confront a hierarchy of for the opposing social workers to make action. Since 2010 she has co-curated from Ryerson University’s Masters of Social dialogue. In relation to the programme for the image with the artists, and was able to knowledge, with serious implications for assumptions and patronizing statements the ongoing research, exhibition and Work who co-presented the programme, Living in 10 Easy Lessons, Gallery 44 director change the text into something they all felt those giving the answers. When the about both the artists and the instructors touring project “The Grand Domestic were all targets of critique, and the condem- Lise Beaudry shared that the aim was to more comfortable with. In this sense, consent instructors impart knowledge required for during the event. It was clear that an explicit Revolution (GDR),” with Casco in Utrecht. Prior to that, Tanaka organized the nations came from various members of the provide a space for concerned communities was negotiated in varying degrees at different their street-work, they are simultaneously recounting of all the measures the artists international conference exhibition, social work community, as well as the press to address “what the exhibition proposed: moments in the project. Not only was revealing the impact of the gendered, took to build consent would not have made “Extra-curricular: Between Art & and general public. The debate around the to critically disrupt social assumptions informed consent possible for the workers, material and economic conditions of their a difference. In the discussion of the contro- Pedagogy,” which presented alternative exhibition featured critical questions that will and challenge us to question.” [1] Asking but this case also demonstrated a position work on a day-to-day basis, which are versial poster campaign, the chastising of structures for mobilizing radical pedagogical art practices, as part of her be familiar to anyone who has followed the questions and disrupting assumptions is of agency by being able to contribute always attached to social stigma. A reciprocal the artists went on well after Duvall’s curatorial residency at the Justina M. recent history of socially engaged art standard fare and a commonly accepted and to critical matters of politics — the framing of revealing of the conditions of the “students” explanation of the direct action they took to Barnicke Gallery. She is currently an practice: Had the artists taken advantage of reproduced ambition in the public sector their representation and making a difference or artists does not take place. resolve the dispute with the instructors. One active member of the Read-in collective, the workers’ vulnerable material and legal of contemporary art. There is value in these in the artwork’s outcome. These flaws were brought out speaker pleaded for humility in working participates in the Unlearning project realities? Was the knowledge produced from practices of outreach in themselves, but The exhibition work itself during the public programming, particularly with such vulnerable people. “There is a lot group and serves on the Programming Committee and Board of Gendai Gallery. the work gained at the expense of the safety when taken for granted as a standard, we represents scenes or expresses moments from the social work community. However, of literature on this,” someone else added Tanaka is a candidate in the Masters in of the workers? The panel discussion had risk missing out on the need to respond when the agency of the instructors them- the potential constructiveness of these in a condescending tone. The disciplinary Visual Studies at the University of Toronto. been planned in order to draw out the debate, differently to other, more urgent, matters. selves is quite evident, as can be seen, for critiques was thwarted because the artists chauvinism these arguments engendered and perhaps dispel some of the tensions Does focusing on the questions instance, in the non-hierarchical videos and the gallery staff were unable or unwilling spoke much louder than any nuanced critique around the work. Unfortunately, the instruc- proposed by this exhibition mean overlooking featuring conversational Q&A sessions with [2] Alessandra Renzi, “Re: Sex Work and [1] Email exchange with Lise Consent @transmediale” Beaudry, January 2013. (16 February 2012; online).

COLUMN FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine / TANAKA

48 49 from their former homes at gun- The second ghost voice ically, primitive tribes arrived a video game that will train them point as the new nation of Israel belongs to Beirut architect at the idea of monotheism and for their upcoming attack on Sector Zero – expelled its native sons and Bernard Khoury — designer of of government simultaneously. Afghanistan. [2] The dramatic daughters. Kurds flowed in from the renowned nightclub B018, Once government had been Game Over – overhead illumination of MAI’s On the Brink of Beirut what had been Kurdistan as built eight years after “the end” formed on the ground, God was Reframing Combat in viewing bench adds significant boundaries shifted, traders came of the civil war and whose formed in the sky.” [5] Does Diaspora Space emphasis to this spectacle of from Jordan and Iraq. Eventually, office is nestled squarely in the a nation have an unconscious? watching. Farocki’s viewers — as the sprawl extended to encircle Karantina — weighs in with How many can fit on that couch? well as those viewing them from Beirut in what came to be known personal recollections: Azouri argues that the creation amidst the gallery’s surrounding as the “misery belt,” and city I came back to Beirut in of group identity requires darkness — are urged to question officials decided to build a wall 1993 and obviously did not find an enemy that must be found not only the links between video Film (70 min), 2011. to hide its unwanted residents. any work… I thought I was going within and then cast out. He goes Traveling exhibition games and institutional violence Directed by Nadim Mishlawi. How do you make a portrait to be a great architectural warrior on to conjure a national Oedipal curated by Vicky Moufawad-Paul, but also the significance of Premiered at the 2011 Dubai International of a neighbourhood? Three that was going to take part in the narrative, arguing that the begin- at MAI collective witnessing as a form of Film Festival (Dubai 08/12/2011) men, ghosts of light and shadow, reconstruction of his country… nings of democracy arrive in 17/11 to 15/12/2012 resistance to occupation and war. appear in succession, often in Not only rebuilding buildings, a collective killing of the father. Confronted with their voice-over. First, political historian but the reconstruction of a nation, “In Freud’s view, we become intended position of identification Hazem Saghieh details the only to realize a few years later what we cannot have, and with the violent progression of waves of immigrant outcasts that that the reconstruction never desire (and punish) what we the game, visitors are compelled, gathered to form “Beirut’s only really happened. In order for are compelled to disown.” — both as a viewing public and on Review by Mike Hoolboom ghetto.” He recounts that during such a project to be politically Adam Phillips [6] Review by Marty Fink a personal level, to confront Lebanon’s civil war (1975-1990), feasible, you have to have some Azouri argues that the disturbing affects of passivity in many in the densely populated kind of political consensus, you Karantina is at the heart of the face of widespread technol- Palestinian refugee camps were have to go through a scarring Lebanon’s national life, precisely ogies of militarization. This piece When I slip Nadim a flickering, hopeful light, as the massacred by Christian militias. process. This never really because it is home to so much uses viewers’ collective discom- Mishlawi’s Sector Zero DVD from camera draws its focal planes in In one stand-alone sequence, happened in Beirut. After 1990, that is unwanted. The outskirts In Blown Up: Gaming and with a stark sensory environment fort as a catalyst to move them its sleeve, my heart is already and out of focus, breathing with historical footage is introduced. we went through a long denial of Beirut are thus figured as War, video games inspire new that makes military violence out of a helpless individual in my throat. I am expecting to the architecture. Not unusually, It is shot from the streets, and period which we’re still in. [3] a national, even international, possibilities for the representa- visible in ways oppositional to position as spectator and into be hurt by these pictures from this formal, nearly studied beauty shows mostly teenagers, some According to the director, dumping ground, a refuse tional role of militarization, the objectives of mainstream a more public one that breaks Lebanon, and the cruel accident is both cover story and uncover- of them dressed like soldiers, the film was once going to be container for all that cannot occupation, and racial violence news reporting. The video games down the seamless alliance of this country’s geography, but ing. It offers the qualities of touch. crouched in the rubble of what named In the Freudian Slip. [4] be contained within the city’s within emerging interactive in the exhibit cast the violence of between technological advance- from the very opening images Where are we? Mishlawi’s used to be home, staring through Little wonder then, that the third globalized crossroads. It is media. Toronto-based curator war not as a necessary or inevit- ment and war. I am assured that beauty will be architectural explorations are rifle sights, or else rushing out voice of Sector Zero belongs home to a slaughterhouse, Vicky Moufawad-Paul brings able threat but as an outcome Across the gallery from a regular accompaniment. The perched at the edge of Beirut in to save a wounded friend, only to psychoanalyst Chawki Azouri, a garbage dump, a metal factory. together installations by Wafaa of displacement and occupation. Serious Games, the exhibit’s only camera seeks out the light, what one commentator names to be gunned down. who at one point states, “Histor- Can we perhaps look to the Bilal, Harun Farocki and In shifting the position of the remaining overhead light beams it caresses the broken walls of “a city of outsiders… a reflection Karantina’s bloodied streets for Mohammed Mohsen. Displayed viewer from a passive recipient down onto a podium facing a the hospital in which much of the of Lebanon.” [1] As architect and the necessary glue, the binding at MAI (Montréal, arts intercul- of such representations to the large-screen projection of Bilal’s film is shot, the touch is tender urbanist Sandra Frem notes, agent, that will re-imagine turels) from 17 November to active roles of gamer and The Night of Bush Capturing: and sensitive. The word “camera” “Beirut’s earliest experience with Lebanon’s national project? 15 December 2012, Blown Up witness, Blown Up creates new A Virtual Jihadi (2008). [3] The lit has its roots in the Latin for globalization dates back to 1888, “It is the individual who raises challenging questions spaces through which to build viewer’s avatar in the game is the “room,” which cinematographer when it was proclaimed the remembers, while groups forget about mediated representations diasporic disidentifications and artist himself, who casts his own Talal Khoury seems aware of in capital of the Ottoman province.” because it is in their interest of violence and their position migrant self-representations virtual body as a suicide-bomber his lyric exploration of spaces in [2] A growing population in the to forget.” [7] within gallery and gaming space. that reframe militaristic violence to avenge the real-life death of a factory, a slaughterhouse and new port required that its The exhibit showcases video within mediated space. his brother. [4] Moufawad-Paul’s a tannery. People are secondary quarantine facility (karantina in Mike Hoolboom is a Canadian media games within the art world, Moufawad-Paul’s curation staging of the artworks draws here, the figures have become Ottoman Turkish) be moved from artist whose work can be found at asking how the representational surrounds viewers in darkness. further attention to the spot- fringeonline.ca and mikehoolboom.com. the ground, while the walls and the city centre to its outskirts, His most recent movie is Lacan violence characteristic of gaming [1] A single illuminated bench lighted viewer, who not propels floors are carefully and slowly and a hospital was built around Palestine (2012), a feature length, culture might be viewed not in an otherwise shadowy room the game forward but also observed. Slow, the looking is it. Though the facility didn’t last, found-footage essay. merely as a catalyst for off- positions gallery visitors in front becomes part of the gallery’s so slow, as if there were time the name stuck, as the region’s screen violence, but as resisting of two adjacent screens to watch primary spectacle. Through the enough to gather all the lives outcasts came to find a home in the normalized spectacle of Farocki’s two-channel film loop, embodied participation of its that lived between these walls, this outlying area. In the 1920s warfare and racial violence within Serious Games I-IV (2009-10), illuminated player, the effects of that touched this table and there were Armenians fleeing dominant media. Gallery visitors in which spotlighted viewers Bilal’s fabricated shoot-to-kill looked out these windows. the Turkish genocide, and in with no prior knowledge of video witness the documentation scenario become not merely The worn surfaces shimmer with 1948 Palestinians came rushing games are invited to engage of American soldiers playing representational but also

[5] Quoted in Sector Zero. [1] Dr. Chawki Azouri in Future of the Arab City and Design, Ann Arbour, [1] Though the three four lights shine down from [2] While one screen displays at the podium is offered Sector Zero. (lecture, American 8 October 2009). á. [6] Adam Phillips, Terrors installations’ video screens above, three of which the digital game in a keyboard, headset, and University of Beirut, Beirut, Nadim Mishlawi, Sector Zero (2011). and Experts (Cambridge: are individually illuminated, illuminate a bench upon action, the other features mouse through which to [2] Sandra Frem, 2 October 2009). [4] Leah Caldwell, “Nadim Film still. Harvard University Press, the sparse use of overhead which viewers are offered uniformed cadets playing navigate the installation. “Reclaiming the Mishlawi: Behind the Walls Courtesy of MC Distribution. 1997), 76. lighting creates a focus not headsets to watch Farocki’s it in a training facility. Infrastructural Landscape: [3] Bernard Khoury, “New of Sector Zero,” Al-Akhbar only on the games, but also Serious Games. [4] Bilal’s autobiographical the Case of Nahr Beirut,” Wars in Progress,” (lecture, English (7 April 2012; online) [7] Azouri, quoted in on gallery visitors as they [3] Illuminated by the positioning within the game Transnational Tides and the University of Michigan Art Sector Zero. participate. Only a total of overhead light, the viewer references his own brother’s

REVIEWS FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine REVIEWS HOOLBOOM / / FINK 50 51 of Farocki’s documentation humanitarian interventions of IHL, however, proportionality of military training. In doing among multinational institutions, is a moderating principle so, these works connect an juridical formations, and spatial that seeks to constrain the use archive of digital invention with Eyal Weizman's configurations, thus positioning of force.” [6] As it is codified a corresponding history of The Least of All Possible Evils the Israeli occupation as an in Protocol I of the Geneva Islamophobic media represent- exemplary case within a broader Conventions of 1977, we are ation. In bringing these three trajectory of pervasive contemp- reminded that, “Proportionality installations together within orary violence. [3] thus demands the establishment a single gaming/artistic space, It is within this general of a proper relation between Blown Up conjures a linked context that readers of LPE unavoidable means and neces- history of diasporic cultural will encounter new conceptual sary ends. Which, considering interventions into both gaming Eyal Weizman, categories to help order the the choice of military means, technology and racial represent- The Least of All Possible Evils: understanding of militarized the principle calls for a balance ation. It therefore succeeds in Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza conflict: “The diffuse body of to be established between presenting violence as neces- (London and New York: Verso, 2011). customs and conventions that military objectives and anticip- sarily interconnected with make up jus in bello, the laws ated damage to civilian life and á. technological advancements of war otherwise known as property. Proportionality is thus Harun Farocki, in both military combat and international humanitarian law not about clear lines of prohibit- Serious Games 1: Watson is Down media industries. Importantly, (IHL), have since the end of the ion but rather about calculating 2 channel video, 2010 by recognizing the capacity Cold War increasingly become and determining balances and of technology to not merely Review by Etienne Turpin the frame within which the calcu- degrees.” [7] It is this proportion perpetuate violence but also to lation and application of military of optimized conflict and document and offset it, the violence takes place.” [4] military aggression — to the right archive Blown Up builds urges Weizman adds, “The juridical degree, at the right time, for the physical, prompting gallery visit- memories of Mohsen’s childhood identifies in her curatorial viewers to reclaim gaming “O Pangloss!” the bio-social-technical assemb- categories of ‘necessity’ and right purpose, and in the right ors to consider strategies for within the Palestinian diaspora. essay, when public space within narratives in order to challenge exclaimed Candide, lages that constitute the conflict, ‘proportionality’ seem to be way, as Aristotle once suggested disrupting the game’s enticing Just as Farocki and Bilal’s occupied territories becomes a the power mechanisms of “this is a strange genealogy! from the polluted aquifers under among the most popular terms in the Nicomachean Ethics — that progression. And indeed, the installations urge viewers zone not of play but of militariz- occupation and war. Wasn’t the devil at the root of it?” the West Bank to the airspace employed in designing and is considered in the subsequent installation succeeds in framing to consider their role as witness, ation, then the simulation of regularly patrolled by drones monitoring state violence.” [5] case studies. [8] participation in violence as an act perpetrator, or even resistor war within the domestic sphere Marty Fink works with archives, zines and “Not at all,” replied the great man. above the Gaza Strip. [2] A key Precisely because of the In the remainder of the that collectively rescripts and of violence, Weak’s nostalgia of video gaming can become a new media to investigate Trans* “It was something indispensible problem created by the Israeli ubiquitous vernacular reference book, Weizman moves through representation and homo diasporas. Fink’s critiques the military and racial prompts viewer identifications transformative site of resistance. writing has appeared in venues including in this best of worlds, occupation, in Weizman’s to “disproportionate” violence in three key cases, first analyzing representations that saturate with migration, exile and racializ- [7] Bringing these transformative Science Fiction Studies and The Journal a necessary ingredient.” designation, was the UN Relief media and cultural discourse, the difficulties facing Médecins Western media. ation. The piece urges viewers spaces out of the home and into of Prisoners on Prisons. Fink’s current and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) Weizman goes on to explain that Sans Frontières President Rony Located between these to stitch together the fragments the gallery’s inquisitive lighting, research traces the circulation of HIV Beginning with an agile responsibility for the construction IHL is not designed to prevent Brauman as he navigated the two illuminated areas within of Moshen’s experience of war, Blown Up offers the opportunity prevention materials in prisons to reading of the sequence of and maintenance of housing in or end wars, but to manage the politics of affinity and anonymity understand shifts in technology from print the exhibit stands an upright racial violence and displacement for disidentification from white to digital formats. Fink recently received a disasters that constitute the the Jenin refugee camp in the ways in which militaries wage during the relief effort for the arcade-style console featuring through their engagement with heteronormative avatars while PhD in English from the City University of narrative of Voltaire’s Candide north of the West Bank, following them; from this perspective, the Ethiopian famine of the mid- Mohsen’s Weak (2010), [5] the game. In navigating the urging viewers to question their New York (CUNY). Fink currently works (1759), the Israeli architect an attack by the Israeli military Panglossian principle of lesser 1980s (“Arendt in Ethiopia”); an 1980s-era platform encasing console, viewers are faced with spatial alignments within with the Prisoner Correspondence Project Eyal Weizman has, in his latest in 2002. The reconstruction of evil operates most effectively as then, explicating the complex in Montreal and teaches English and an intricate pastiche of Pac-Man- the futility of attempting to mediated acts of representational Women’s Studies at Concordia University. monograph, The Least of All destroyed buildings in the camp the principle of proportionality. visual economy of courtroom style graphics, 1970s Egyptian apprehend logics of both gaming violence. Possible Evils (LPE), initiated by the UNRWA signalled, for In Weizman’s words: “Different models in an Israeli High Court pop music, and even fragments technology and of war. Blown Up offers a wide another productive foray into Weizman, the “humanitarian versions of it have been used of Justice case, argued by the of poetry. Its architecture impels Weak therefore links the range of gaming aesthetics, from our optimized “humanitarian paradox” wherein humanitarian to describe different types of Jerusalem-based Palestinian viewers to not only move through public experience of playing the early arcade culture of present.” [1] In his previous book, relief can simultaneously balancing acts, most often in human rights lawyer Muhammad the manual labyrinth of the game video games within gallery space Mohsen’s childhood memories to Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture increase political oppression. The situations where some rights Dahla, regarding the legality but also through the affects of to prior incarnations of gaming Nintendo 64 James Bond-esque of Occupation (2007), Weizman radical architecture research contradict others, or when of the separation wall in the loss and displacement it triggers. space, from the arcade to the cell templates, from the now- delivered a compelling and project of Hollow Land clearly individual rights are weighed Palestinian village of Beit Sourik The nostalgia of Weak’s retro phone, which have transformed obsolete MS Windows inter- comprehensive stratigraphic anticipates The Least of All against public interests, or (“The Best of All Possible Walls”); gaming aesthetic also lends alongside developments in new faces of Bilal’s work to the reading of the Israeli occupation Possible Evils, but the new book against administrative or econ- and, finally, considering the value to the fragmented sensory media. [6] As Moufawad-Paul early-2000s laptop culture of Palestine, moving through expands the context for thinking omic policies. Within the context strange case of Marc Garlasco’s

death at the hands of emulates. It also references Destruction), using attention to the user handheld technology have indoctrination and the [1] An earlier version of the Evidence: Environmental [4] Weizman LPE (2011), 10. [8] For a discussion of American soldiers. By an adaptation of this Halloween fonts, gothic perched at its interface. reintegrated gaming spectator’s potential for book was published in Italian Forensics in the Age of the the aesthetics of forensic placing himself into the original release that features hillsides, and spider webs to The call of its booming, experiences into the public resistance. as Il male minore (Rome: Anthropocene,” Cabinet 43 [5] Ibid., 10. architecture in relation action, he draws attention a new skin that transforms accentuate the sensational- 8-bit-inspired soundtrack sphere. Similar adaptations Edizioni Nottetempo, 2009). (Fall 2011): 101-105. to the economy of visual to both the vulnerability of the popular Islamophobic ism of the endeavour. entices gallery visitors to in film — from the glory of [7] Vicky Moufawad-Paul, [6] Ibid., 11. evidence, see Thomas Iraqi civilians within war, as game into a corresponding approach and play the the pre-war cinema “Blown Up: Gaming and [2] Eyal Weizman, Hollow [3] Weizman, Hollow Keenan and Eyal Weizman, well as the effects of racist hunt for President Bush, [5] Unlike the other two game. experience to home War” (Montreal: MAI, Land: Israel’s Architecture of Land, 205. For a detailed [7] Ibid., 11. Mengele’s Skull: The Advent representations in cultural and places the viewer at the installations that are entertainment centres to 2012). Occupation (London: Verso, explanation of the transition of Forensic Aesthetics (Berlin: outlets like Quest for seat of the action. Bilal’s experienced through [6] While arcade settings current YouTube and 2007). For a discussion of from Hollow Land to The Sternberg Press, 2012). Saddam, a video game home screen features camp headphones, Mohsen’s eventually gave way to handheld culture — raise evidence within a practice of Least of All Possible Evils, released by Petrilla reproductions of so-called console — though not individual consoles to enjoy associated questions forensic architecture address- see Eyal Weizman, “Political Entertainment in 2003, terrorists, talking heads, and illuminated by overhead in private, domestic space, regarding collective ing environmental pollution, Plastic,” Collapse 6 which Bilal’s console WMDs (Weapons of Mass lighting — loudly calls current developments in consumption, mass see Paulo Tavares, “Murky (July 2010): 257-303.

REVIEWS FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine REVIEWS FINK / / TURPIN 52 53 role in Human Rights Watch’s Voltaire was willing to ridicule The collection is made have failed. investigations following his role Leibniz’s theological optimism, up of essays, conversations, In “GENDER ALARM! as an analyst in the US Defense wherein the best of all possible programming notes and Queer Feminist Exhibitions in the Intelligence Agency, where worlds was guaranteed by a FÉMINISMES ÉLECTRIQUES photographs that document the ‘Year of Feminist Art,’” Helena he selected bombing targets divine calculus that permitted works, interventions and Reckitt considers a group and attendant munitions, and forms of destructive evil in practices of featured artists, as exhibition put on by La Centrale conducted “proportionality order to optimize the invisible well as the centre itself — its to mark their new direction, assessments” in anticipation and mysterious good occurring recent move positions the and does so in relation to other of military attacks (“Forensic elsewhere. Currently less gallery’s storefront as a public exhibitions that took place Architecture: Only the Criminal subject to ridicule, but certainly intervention site, strategically around the same time: small Can Solve the Crime”). These no less pernicious, is the located to interact with the direct queer feminist art shows that chapters — each provocative condition wherein the optimal Leila Pourtavaf, ed., surroundings of the centre at influenced the centre’s inaugural enough on its own to demand forms of destruction called for by Féminismes Électriques a given time. The contributors, event, and two large-scale much greater consideration — new standards of international (Montreal: La Centrale variously involved with the museum exhibits (WACK! and provide sufficient material, in humanitarian law shield criminal Galerie Powerhouse, 2012). centre, offer insights and descrip- Global Feminisms) that received Weizman’s estimation, for a more perpetrators whose precise tions of material practices and art institutional recognition in the US. schematic analysis of the shifting violence increases alongside the processes amidst dense theor- It’s a thorough consideration of role that evidence plays in the suffering of the oppressed who etical discussions, organizational contemporary queer feminist art prosecution of war crimes; that struggle against the paradoxes criticisms, self-reflections and practices, their pleasures and is, we are asked to track the of our humanitarian present. Review by Sara Rozenberg historical documentation. This limitations, and their historical move from the predominance of attention to creative practice is and generational influences. witness testimony to an increas- Etienne Turpin is, itinerantly, a teacher, refreshing, totally engrossing Thérèse St-Gelais also writer, editor, and curator. Currently, he is a ing reliance on the expert Research Fellow at the University of and highlights these works as takes up the subject of genera- witness, or more specifically, Michigan’s Center for Southeast Asian interventions that reach well tional continuity by comparing from the narrative provided by Studies and a lecturer in architecture at beyond this publication. works by contemporary Quebec the subject of a given crime, to the Taubman College of Architecture and This past fall, Montréal’s La Centrale’s book. Many readers will likely performance artists to those Urban Planning. He is principal the objective material evidence investigator, with Meredith Miller, of La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse The introduction to encounter a challenge when from the 1970s, at the level of a criminal act. Of course, much Architecture + Adaptation: Design for released its latest publication, Féminismes Électriques opens presented with such a multi- of aesthetics: performing acts is at stake in this transformation Hyper-complexity, and a contributing a collection reflecting on the last with a consideration of La faceted text based around a of cleaning, recasting kitchen of the juridical apparatus, and editor of Scapegoat: Architecture | ten years of activity at the Centrale’s inception, written by particular organization’s history. appliances, &c. The essay brings Landscape | Political Economy. Through despite the brevity of Weizman’s these and other projects, Turpin works feminist artist-run centre. I had the editor of the collection, Namely, it’s a challenge of entry attention to parallels in imagery conclusions, it is clear that the with colleagues, contributors, collabora- a lot of big questions when Leila Pourtavaf, who locates points — to understand what and actions used in performance implications of the shift beckon tors, and students to learn about and I picked up this book. I wondered the gallery’s emergence within issues, discourses and institu- works across generational lines. the attention of political through modes of inquiry such as making, what a coherent publication the context of a growing number tional histories are being This framework ultimately leads building, philosophy, aesthetic confusion activists and scholars alike. and design research. These collaborative around the topic of feminist art of both women-run initiatives addressed by La Centrale’s to a consideration of how inces- In the epoch of the efforts work to assemble worlds that can would look like at this moment, and artist-run centres in North members, what the centre’s sant, disturbing and continuous European enlightenment, sustain passion, pleasure and conviction. and what it would mean for it to America. It’s a context that community is concerned with in actions might perform a come out of an artist-run centre. highlights the historic relation- terms of local struggles and contemporary feminist subject. with the text. The conversation Kraus suggests that “the art I was also excited to read about ship between the realization practices, and how these fit The second half of moves on to the question of love world has become the last real the type of work that was taking of a feminist politics and the within broader concerns, both Féminismes Électriques is made as political act and to a profound cultural venue” (174). In the place at La Centrale. As I learned, organizational model of the globally and within feminist art. up of conversations offering description of existential loss context of La Centrale, I think the centre was founded in artist-run centre (decentralized, I keep returning to Trish Salah’s organic discussions about art stripped of politics and geogra- it’s worth considering this 1973 and is considered one of not-for-profit, participatory statement in “An-Identity Poetics production and issues that come phy in the video work Familiar statement in relation to the the first women’s galleries in and non-hierarchical) as a critical and Feminist Artist-Run Centres,” out of this type of work. The (2007). It’s a brilliant conversation gallery’s transdisciplinary North America. site for the promotion of exper- a brilliant, two-part essay on first piece in the section offers around knowledge production in programming, its focus on critical At the time of writing, just imental and politicized art. trans-inclusion and identity a detailed look at aesthetic art and strategies in presenting art practices, its formal re- two months after the Toronto While Féminismes politics in the context of queer approaches and influences in directly and indirectly political art; evaluation of its commitments launch of Féminismes Électriques Électriques is on the one hand feminist utopias: “It makes a works by Stéphanie Chabot and the text addresses the questions to social justice, and its history on 28 September 2012, the an archive of a decade in La difference when and where we Dominique Pétrin, who refelct on of urgency as well as commodif- as a feminist artist-run centre. Toronto Women’s Bookstore, an Centrale’s history, the focus of think about these questions the impact of colour saturation, ication of the Palestinian cause, institution with a similar history the collection is the pivotal shift of identity” (86). Based on talks how visual fictions disrupt logic, knowledge sources in cultural Sara Rozenberg is a writer, editor and of emergence in the 1970s, in official mandate that took given at La Centrale during the the use of clichéd motifs and the production in relation to administrator living in Toronto. She holds an MA from the Women and Gender announced its closure. The loss place in 2007, to better reflect the self-reflection process that led figure of the witch. Palestine, and how aesthetics Studies Institute at the University of of this space raised issues of commitments of its members. to the 2007 mandate change, Reena Katz opens her communicates affect and relates Toronto, and is currently developing a sustainability and direction, Most notably, the new mandate the piece offers clearly situated conversation with Jumana Manna to the political imagination. collaborative project that addresses over generations and through seeks to prioritize solidarity, points of criticism and insists with the words: “Let me begin I’ll end with a bold sugges- labour issues amongst Toronto-based permutations of the ideas of trans-inclusion and inter-gener- by saying that your work gives artists. She is also a member of the FUSE on definitions that break down tion made by Chris Kraus in a Board of Directors. feminism and politics, as well ational dialogue, focusing on terms like “post-feminism” me chills…” (147). I have the conversation about Semiotext(e) as the current possibilities and local and global struggles and into their practical meanings. same visceral response to her that frames publishing as a challenges of maintaining relationships of power, while It also features great attention work just reading descriptions of curatorial practice. In the context feminist resources, all of which continually engaging with, and to language and the logic of Manna’s material and aesthetic of music, literary and experimen- resonates clearly with the themes critiquing, feminist discourses rhetoric, extending to specific practices, not to mention the tal film markets that marginalize and concerns developed in and debates. examples where utopian visions images of the pieces included so many artists and practices,

REVIEWS FUSE / 36 – 2 Palestine – Palestine REVIEWS TURPIN / / ROZENBERG 54 55 PROJECT STATEMENTS

Kandis Friesen Sarah Pupo Haitham Ennasr Actual Size (2013) in collaboration A Game of Shater Hassan (pages 10 to 14) with Josh Pavan (pages 26 – 27) Lady Gaza Architectural and engineering (page 17) A Game of Shater Hassan is a plans articulate the form and function nonlinear, semi-autobiographical project of intended constructions — the flow of Sarah Pupo was born in that explores notions of memory, oral substances, entry and exit points, joints, Toronto, Ontario and lives in Montreal, history and the diaspora. The project is connections and foundations — and reveal Quebec. Through painting, drawing and described as a retelling the story of the dispersion of power that sustains animation she works with methods of Shater Hassan when in fact it actively these structures. The flow of capital making that place value on intuition, denies you most of the story itself, and surrounding Israel’s occupation has been ritual, associative thinking and the flux takes you somewhere else instead. monitored and tracked through the of chance and control. Her practice work of activists in Palestine, Israel and is rooted in a desire to undermine Haitham is a New York based around the world. Actual Size diagrams hierarchies privileging rational, linear new media artist and game designer. these grassroots efforts to follow the experience over that which lies beyond His work ranges from digital and trails of profit and document the industry traditional means of perception and analog games to fake organizations, of occupation, while also visualizing the understanding. Recent projects include and has been featured on Mondoweiss materials (and materiality) of the tools a solo show at La Centrale in and Indiecade. Haitham completed his of surveillance, occupation and control. Montreal, Quebec, group shows in MFA in Design and Technology at From the high-tech biometrics of the Vancouver and Berlin and a collaborative Parsons (New York NY), and his Basel Project, which tracks Palestinian animation with the Norwegian bachelors from the Arab American ß movement into and out of Israel, to recording artist, Nina Nielsen. University in Jenin, Palestine. He is a My Beloved Omar, I wrote you a list of dishes that I hope the razing of over 100,000 trees on decent bellydancer, but there is room you will use, and remember me Palestinian land, to a towering concrete Joshua Pavan is an Alberta-bred for improvement in that department. every time you open this Agenda. wall complex spanning seven hundred queen relocated to Montreal where he Please try to use these recipes. Mama kilometres, it can be difficult to under- works as a trade unionist and community stand the sheer mass and intricate organizer. In the summer of 2007, he Courtesy of Basil AlZeri and violence of such endeavours. It becomes was one of the co-founders of Pervers/ Suad ElHaj Hassan. a bit clearer when the lines of connection Cité, Montreal’s radical queer summer are drawn, between car manufacturing festival. When not figuring out political and armoured military vehicles, creative drag as the Lady Gaza, he can be found video software and surveillance tracking defending the honour of misunderstood systems, aircraft production and armed popstars. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles — the actual size just keeps on growing.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1978, Kandis Friesen is a Montreal- based artist working in video, sound, performance, drawing and installation. Her interests lie in contexts of labour and production, sites of national and cultural identity, and the role of documents and archives in constructions of collective memory. Her work has been shown at galleries and festivals across Canada and internationally, and among many projects, she is currently working on the Mennonite Video Archive Project, a collaborative collection of work activating the archive as public space.

57