Simblist Dissertation Dec 2 2015
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Copyright by Noah Leon Simblist 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Noah Leon Simblist certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: DIGGING THROUGH TIME: PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES OF OCCUPATION Committee: Ann Reynolds, Supervisor Tarek El-Ariss, Co-Supervisor Stephennie Mulder George Flaherty Yoav Di-Capua DIGGING THROUGH TIME: PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES OF OCCUPATION by Noah Leon Simblist, B.A.; M.F.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2015 Acknowledgements I am grateful for the support of my committee, especially my supervisor Ann Reynolds who generously read countless drafts of this dissertation and offered invaluable feedback that helped me to craft my writing to become more clear and precise. My co- supervisor Tarek El Aris was enormously helpful in helping me to conceptualize the relationship between Israel-Palestine and Lebanon, allowing this dissertation to move outside of the common binary of Israel-Palestine. He also was a great help in introducing me to many major figures of the art scene in Beirut. Yoav Di-Capua introduced me to Tarek El-Aris and was the one who suggested that I think about Lebanon as well. But I also learned a great amount from his seminar, especially ways to think through methodologies of historiography. I remember learning some foundational principles about art and architecture of the Islamic and Arab world from a seminar that I took with Stephennie Mulder and have continued to learn from her nuanced look at the legacy of a long and rich cultural history in the region in relation to contemporary art and politics. I am also deeply grateful to George Flaherty for agreeing to join my committee at the last minute and provide poignant feedback. I also want to thank Andrea Giunta who started this project with me before leaving UT. Her seminar on politically engaged conceptualism in Latin America helped give me an analog for similar practices in the Middle East. I am also grateful to the support of Southern Methodist University, where I have taught since 2003. I pursued this PhD while teaching full time at SMU, Meadows School of the iv Arts and my deans Jose Bowen and Sam Holland as well as my chairs Jay Sullivan and Michael Corris helped me in this process in innumerable ways including research funding from Meadows Faculty Development Grants, University Research Grants and course relief. I was also fortunate to teach a seminar class based on my research. I am grateful to the students in this course who helped me tremendously to clarify my thinking through discussions that have aided my writing. In many ways this dissertation began with my first trips with my family to Israel- Palestine as a child. That early relationship with a place, that I have come to think of as a second home, extended through periods of living and working there from 1994-2000. But the research that led to this dissertation began in earnest in 2006 when I began interviewing a number of NGOs and journalists in Israel-Palestine including Zochrot, Ir Amim, Parents Circle, David Ehrlich and Daoud Kuttab. I thank staff at the Nesiya Institute for making a number of introductions that helped me at these early stages. This was the first step in a number of research trips as well as lectures, panels, essays, interviews, reviews and exhibitions that I was involved with since then that dealt with the subject of art and politics in Israel-Palestine and Lebanon. In 2008 I invited Walid Raad to SMU in conjunction with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The time that I spent talking with Raad about his practice helped me enormously in thinking about a number of issues that made their way into this dissertation. I want to thank Terri Thornton for her enthusiasm with this project as well v as Sarah Rogers and Nada Shabout for participating in a panel that SMU hosted along with Walid Raad to talk about histories and collections of art in the Arab world. That year I conducted another research trip during which I met and interviewed Yael Bartana at the Jerusalem Film Festival. I also participated in a building camp run by the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD) to research an article commissioned by Sylvie Fortin at Art Papers about Bartana’s Summer Camp. During that time I also met representatives of NGOs including the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), B’Tselem, Anarchists Against the Wall as well as filmmakers and activists. In 2009 I invited Yael Bartana to lecture at SMU, which resulted in much deeper conversation about her practice and that same year started the PhD program at UT. In 2011 I curated an exhibition at Lora Reynolds Gallery entitled Out of Place that dealt with the common histories of exile for Israelis and Palestinians. I thank Lora Reynolds for supporting this project. Not long after the show opened I chaired a panel at CAA about the same material which included Dora Apel, Adair Roundthwaite, and Gannit Ankori, who replaced Rhonda Saad after her tragic and sudden death. I learned a lot from this show and panel, not the least of which was my first exposure to the complexities of BDS. Later that year, I was invited by Yael Reinharz to participate in a curatorial trip to learn about the art scene in Israel-Palestine. During that trip I was fortunate to meet dozens of artists, curators and critics including Khaled Hourani and Dor Guez, two artists that I am fortunate to have been able to continue an ongoing dialog. I am grateful to Artis for this invaluable support. vi In 2012 I was invited to be a scholar in residence at the Israeli Center for Digital Art and during that time Ran Kasmy Ilan and Leah Abir were incredible hosts, helping me to meet a vast array of artists. One of the most incredible of these meetings was with Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti who generously invited me to their home to answer questions about their project Decolonizing Architecture. During this time Jack Persekian and Jumana Emil Aboud at the Al Ma’mal Foundation were very helpful, allowing me to see Ayreen Anastas’s videos for the first time. I also was fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct interviews with Dor Guez, Khaled Hohurani, Rula Halawani, Miki Kratsman, and Avi Mograbi. Later that year Tarek El Aris introduced me to Aissa Deebi who has continued to be a valuable colleague and friend. Also that year I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Omer Fast when his work was exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art. I want to thank Jeffrey Grove for this introduction. Also that year I was awarded a Boone Fellowship through SMU’s Human Rights Program. In addition to supporting a research trip to Germany and Poland, and travel support to Lebanon and Israel-Palestine, this fellowship helped me to develop the course based on my research. I am grateful to Rick Halperin for the opportunity. The 2013 research trip, funded by the Boone Fellowship, allowed me to see Akram Zaatari’s installation in the Lebanese Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. I also visited Beirut where I interviewed Akram Zaatari, Walid Sadek, Tony Chakar, and others from the post-war art scene. During this trip the archives at the Beirut Art Center and Ashkal vii Alwan were tremendously valuable. I am thankful to Laura Metzler and Suzy Haljian for introductions and conversations about the local cultural landscape. Not long after that, through an introduction provided by Leah Abir I met the pilot at the center of Zaatari’s piece and Hagai Tamir was generous to welcome me into his home and studio in Jaffa for an illuminating interview. On that same trip Khaled Jarrar took me on a tour through Ramallah as well as inviting me to his studio. I am incredibly thankful for his boundless enthusiasm and openness. This research in Israel-Palestine was once again supported by a residency with the Israeli Center for Digital Art and I thank Ran Kasmy Ilan and Eyal Danon for the opportunity. I also was invited by Chen Tamir to lecture at the Center for Contemporary Art and I worked with Leah Abir on a follow up seminar with local artist. I am thankful to Tamir and Abir for the opportunity. That same year I was fortunate to conduct an interview with Charles Esche in Houston about his work on Khaled Hourani’s Picasso in Palestine. I also met Emily Jacir for the first time at the Creative Time Summit, which honored Khaled Hourani with the Leonore Annenberg Prize. I later invited Jacir to SMU, again for a joint program with the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and I am grateful to Jacir for her willingness to engage in conversations about her work and to Terri Thornton for collaborating on this project. In 2014 I was invited by Gilad Efrat at Shenkar and Avi Lubin at Hamidrasha to conduct seminars with their students about the relationship between art and politics. I am grateful to Efrat and Lubin for the opportunity as well as their students for engaging so willingly in speculative conversations about politics following a tense time during the viii 2014 Gaza war. That same year I was supported by SMU to travel to the São Paulo biennial, curated by a team that included Charles Esche and Galit Eilat. There I was fortunate to see works by Yael Bartana, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, Tony Chakar and others and to talk with them about the effects to a BDS controversy at the biennial.