This text comes at the time of great worry for the neighbouring countries of Syria as the violence threatens to spill over further and that there is a consensus to let Syria sort its problems out itself without foreign intervention. It is important to consider the fact that this following text exists as a result of illegal activity in neighbouring Israel that has continued since the second world war to present day and that any military intervention against Syria only serves Israel’s interests, either as a diversion for the continual expansion and even advancement further into the West Bank, or for any additional advancement that borders Syria, either for water or land, or for testing out military capabilities. I find it genuinely hard to see if Israel has any concern for its civilian population given its behaviour in international and regional affairs over the last 65 years and the State’s refusal to desist in both the advancement of settlements or further attacks and incursions into the West Bank, Gaza, Southern Lebanon, Jordan River or Golan Heights. An allied attack by the US, France - or Israel - on Syria is going to be catastrophic for the region’s stability. Watching Britain’s offering of televised democracy to pull out of military intervention was a tormenting relief that was almost surreal in both the immediacy of the decision and that the government was actually listening to the public.
Even more so was in the mainstream media, where both the BBC and Channel 4 announced for the first time that maybe there was evidence for the Free Syrian Army to have been using chemical weapons and not Assad, that there was no logic to Assad using chemical weapons when he had gained the upper hand against the FSA. I do think there is an intolerance towards Shia Islam from both the US and UK governments and their mainstream media, whether in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt or Iran but I am not qualified to answer anything an further than that and am not privy to facts about chemical weapons or the full extent of the differences in Sharia law; this text is simply about representation and children displaced by the State of Israel. I would also like to thank Ghassan Maasri and Nora Razian for their kind and generous support whilst staying in Lebanon this summer and this text is a token effort at understanding an incomprehensive politic that many fear for its resolution…
In Hamra, Beirut there is an archive called Zakira[i], it is run mainly by volunteers who want to offer photography as a form of creativity and an outlet for children from the many Palestinian refugee camps around Lebanon; the collective provides children with a variety of cameras to document their daily lives in these camps. When I first came across the archive I was thinking about ideas of abandoning nationality and superstition and thinking if an image, or a photograph, or a life in photography is a way out of trauma. Whether a life in art has much differentiation within these particular values – or just art itself – or if they are worthwhile substitutes for each other; imagining the worst case scenario [sic] possible about the limitations and inefficacy of art, of working for nothing, of being a free researcher, or another case example for a curatorial premise to be wheeled out, whilst the notion of custodianship becomes either contested, absent, aberrated or something else. Such a situation doesn’t necessarily make the curator amoral - or immoral - but like everybody else, they/ us are stretched. There is an always present chronology, though, to fall back on and really most of my questions are moral and ethical dilemmas about how one can get art to function in a moral and ethical way, if at all. This, for some reason, does not seem to be so difficult in Lebanon or Palestine.
Twice I have had a nightmare about a black shadow enveloping me and I stupidly deliberately took the dream as an excuse for defacing photographs from the archives publication called Lahza (which, ironically means ‘to grasp’), idiotically pushing the notion that we should not rely on images, or specificallyrepresentation, to discuss trauma, or that dreams can, also, pose some kind of deep seated fear, or that superstition’s strength lies in it’s implacable unknown-ness, which was why I encouraged the idea in the first place- to go somewhere else, even if it was at the expense of a certain egomania and narcissism. We know from first-hand experience, that the notion of art-as being-un-cathartic to be untrue, that any lack of trust can, understandably, be seen as offensive, even if such a position is scientifically and humanistically essential for the undertaking and understanding of an idea - or just a simple artistic or “democratic” freedom being used or abused. A journalist, Nayla Razzouk, inadvertently interviewed me one day and it turned out she worked for free on the project for 3 years after coming back from covering the Iraq war for 7 long years and she saw that I had defaced her publication of the archive that I had bought a week earlier. The book was defaced with all-seeing eyes scrawled on every page with a marker pen, it looked something like an idiotic teenager would do, learning to tag in their bedroom, and she was remarkably understanding and open-minded about such a terrible and crass idea, when really the best thing to do is to simply exhibit the photographs to as many people as possible. Making such mistakes through bad art is permissible/ acceptable and privately is easier to get away with but publically such activity runs the risk of being offensive. If anything there is a greater degree of an absence of judgement in the space of the exile, there is no overriding hierarchy, through peoples overwhelming need to escape certain traumas, and hopefully that applies to people walking in to a refugee camp as well as those who inhabit the space.
Certainly, emerging social and political practices in the West Bank’s refugee camps challenge the idea of refugees as passive subjects. In our work as architects, we aim to invert the conceptualization of the everyday practices of refugees as a reaction or resistance to an absolute sovereign power.” [ii]
The statement taken from Campus in Camps, a university in a UNRWA refugee camp in Dheisheh, Bethlehem and has been in existence since 1949. The statement almost refers to the refugee camp as resistant first and then the inhabitants but that would be twisting things and adding impetus to the displacement of people[iii] who are simply tryingto come to terms and try to make sense of their ruptured location and reclaim a lost sense of identity, alienation, disempowerment and political abuse. There is an often cited agonism towards how art is made in the region, which is cited by Campus in Camps - and also Hanan Toukan in her lectures about resistance in Palestinian visual culture – (something which Hannah Arendt discussed a lot) but hopefully something more cathartic, or holistic, can be added to a term that is often used to describe the ritual of pain in a [representative] theatrical or performative setting – or culture as simply politicized. Additionally there is a case of other aspects of art that are not just visual but conceptual/ curator led that are subject to the same processes as visual art, which is disappointingly absent in Toukan’s lectures, which do not veer very far from the subject of representation, or historical representation. Representation is a crutch for many artists and politically looking at art from the outside in, is only one way of looking at art. This Quote from Blanchot’s Writing of Disaster springs to mind:
Theories are necessary (the theories of language, for example): necessary and useless. Reason works in order to wear itself out, by organizing itself into systems, seeking a positive knowledge where it can posit itself, pose and repose and at the same time convey itself to an extremity which forms a stop and a closure. We must pass by way of this knowledge and forget it. But forgetting is not secondary, it is not an improvised failing of what has first been constituted as memory. Forgetfulness is a practice, the practice of writing that prophesies because it is enacted by the utter renunciation of everything: to announce is perhaps to renounce. The theoretical battle, even if it is waged against some form of violence, is always the violence of an incomprehension; let us not be stopped short by the partial, simplifying, reductive character of comprehension itself.” [iv]
However, the naming of any activity is a strange exercise; even as a readily identifiable agonism it ruptures the participant into being the activity, particularly as a refugee is by definition resisting participation by resisting their occupier- one would hope there is an unease in committing to such definition as our motives, situations and moods change... Essentially it would be more worthwhile to not carry one’s philosophy of art into these liminal spaces. It’s unpleasant being faced with your own inadequacy, which in my case is an inescapable inadequacy itself- and something I have always valued as deeply humbling.
PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN LEBANESE REFUGEE CAMPS WHO HAVE TURNED TOWARDS REPRESENTATION…
Abdallah Ahmed Oways
Abdallah Ali Awad
Abdullah Kallam
Abdallah Kazuh
Abdallah Munzer Yassin
Abdallah Nazir al Kayyim
Abdel-Dib Ibrahim
Abdel-Hadi Fateh al-Khali
Abdel-Halim Tayssir Mabda
Abdel-Hamid Nabulsi
Abdel-Kader Said Akl
Abdel-Karim al-Shayeb
Abdel-Karim Muhamed Khattab
Abdel-Majid Esmael Abbas
Abdel-Rahman Jamal Munazer
Abdel-Rahman Muhamad Nassar
Abdel-Rahman Salah Issa
Abed al-Hadi
Abed al-Rahman
Abed al-Safadi
Adham Damur
Afak Zaki Faraj
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman
Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Nawfal
Ahmed Adham Shehabi
Ahmed Bashir al-Dukhi
Ahmed Bilal al-Jajj Hassan
Ahmed Ghassan Ramadan
Ahmed Ibrahim
Ahmed Ibrahim Omari
Ahmed Khallam
Ahmed Khald Ahmed
Ahmed Marmar
Ahmed Muhamed al-Tukhi
Ahmed Muhamed Barhumi
Ahmed Muhamed Jamal
Ahmed Muhamed Mustafa
Ahmed Muhamed Rahil
Ahmed Muhamed Taleb Attieh
Ahmed Mustafa Awad
Ahmed Mustafa Mansur
Ahmed Nehmeh Said
Ahmed Omar
Ahmed Osman Maaruf
Ahmed Ramadan Ramadan
Ahmed Shaalan
Ahmed Walid Taha
Ala’ Ahmed Abu Khassem
Ala’ Ahmed Ahmed
Ala’ Ahmed Lubani
Ala’ Ezzeddeen
Ala’ Khayr Bashir
Ala’ Muhamed Hamadeh
Ali Afif
Ali Habib Samar
Ali Hassan Ahmed
Ali Jamad Abdel-Latif
Ali Kassem al Hassan
Ali Khaled al-Hajj Hassan
Ali Khaled Badawiyeh
Ali Khaled Najar
Ali Khalil Bikai
Ali Muhamed Jumaa
Ali Muhamed Kassem
Ali Muhamed Omrin
Ali Muhamed Salem
Ali Noureddeen Yussef
Amal Ahmed Ezziyeh
Amal Azar Azar
Amal Nasser Salameh
Amani Ahmed al-Sayed
Ameen Ahmed Hussein
Amina Yussef Abdel-Al
Amneh Awdeh
Amneh Omar Karzun
Anwar Hassan al-Rukon
Anwar Samir al-Ali
Arafat Hussein Azzam
Ashraf Hakam Fandi
Asma Taha Abdel-Latif
Asma’ Dallal
Asma’ Hani
Aya Abdel-Hadi
Aya Afif Awad
Aya Bassan Hamid
Aya Faruq Masrieh
Aya Ghassan al-Issa
Aya Hassan Muhamed
Aya Muhamed Serhan
Aya Salman
Ayat Issa Awad
Ayham Ibrahim Daoud
Ayman Abu Sahyun
Ayman Habbush
Ayman Saleh Daoud
Baha’ Khodor al Khatib
Bahaeddine Ahmed Merhi
Baher Nasser
Baker Ali Aki
Bara’ Barakat
Bassel al-Ali
Bassem Kassab
Carole Abdallah Akkal
Charbel Elias Berbara
Charbel Marun Hajjar
Dalia Muhamed Abdel-Hadi
Dani Abdo Khalfeh
Dareen Faysal Mooh
Diala Adel Ghanumi
Diana Hassan al-Arid
Dina Bader Adbel-Razzak
Dina Hussein Shatila
Doaa’ Mahmud Serhal
Dunia Ahmed al-Ali
Eliane Attieh
Elias Mehri Mikati
Elie Wahid Marun
Elyo Riad Shaheen
Elysah Attieh
Esra’ Abu Haider
Esra’ Al-Sayed
Esra’ Darwish Al-Safadi
Esra’ Khaled Obeid
Esra’ Shehadeh
Eva Shadi Abdallah
Fadi Azar
Fadia Ali al-Jadaa
Farah Abu al-Shabab
Farah Ahmed Ali
Farah Nazer Jibril
Faten Muhamed Suleiman
Fatimah Ahmed al-Ameen
Fatimah Ahmed Bikaai
Fatimah Jumaa
Fatimah Kassem Wehbeh
Fatimah Mahmud Bysaleh
Fatimah Muhamed Kayed
Fatimah Walid Issa
Fatimah Yussef al-Muajal
Fayza Wissam Aisha
Fida Khalil Mustafa
Fuad Salim Sbear
Georgios Nehmeh
Ghali Ghassan Hilal Ibrahim
Ghassan Fuad Jumaa
Ghassan Mustafa Awad
Ghazir Mustafa Awad
Ghazir Mustafa Abdel Rahman
Ghina Ghassan Ibrahim
Hadil Aki
Haifa Khaled al-Darwish
Hala Ali al-Hajj
Hala Sawan
Hala Taliha Rifaat
Hamza Hussein Merhi
Hanadi Hussein Suleiman
Hanane Khaled Suleiman
Hanane Yussef Abdallah
Haneen Ahmed Nabulsi
Haneen Ibrahim Al-Hajj
Hassan Afif Abbas
Hassan Ahmed Kaddoura
Hassan Al-Ali
Hassan Daabas
Hassan Ibrahim Akl
Hassan Merhi Hamad
Hayat Samir Diab
Hazar Said Shaaban
Hiba Abboud
Hiba Ahmed Muhamed
Hiba Nasser Bishan
Hiba Riad Awad
HibaYehya Darian
Hilal Abdel Hadi
Hisham Yussef Kaoush
Hussein Ali Awdi
Hussein Ali Yussef
Hussein Bassam Al-Saadi
Hussein Hassan Hassan
Hussein Taan Abdallah
Ibrahim Ahmed Abdallah
Ibrahim Al-Aloumi
Ibrahim Dib Al-Habash
Ibrahim Fouad Taha
Ibrahim Imad Abed El-Razzak
Ibrahim Issa Aylawi
Ibrahim Mansur
Ibrahim Muhamed Akl
Ibrahim Al-Dalou
Ibrahim Muhamed Mansur
Ibrahim Shehadeh
Ikhlas Muhamed Abdel Hadi
Imad Samir Hallak
Imane Khalil Anani
Imane Naim Abdel Karim
Inas Mahmud Khalil
Jaafar Omar Suleiman
Jalaleddine Ali Al-Morshed
Jamal Khaled Al-Sabeen
Jamal Mohamed Attieh
Jamil Sharif Daoud
Jamila Akkal
Jana Nazir Khodor
Jihad Muhamed Dekka
Jihad Waldi Abu Tableh
Jihnae Marun
Josef Akkal
Julien George Jabbur
Kamal Hussein Abdel-Rahman
Kamar Mustafa Kassem
Khadjeh Ali Hassan
Khadjeh Muhamed Ayyub
Khaled Ghassan Aref
Khaled Hussein Hassanine
Khaled Mattar
Khaled Nabil Dib
Khaled Said Kassem
Khaled Yussef Rifai
Khalifeh Muhamed Khalifeh
Khalil Kazuh
Khalil Saad Huwaydi
Khawla Jamal Shahrur
Khita, Omar al-Maligi
Khodor Ali Zayd
Khulud Jihad Harb
Khulud Mehri
Khulud Walid Al-Issa
Lama Sawan
Lara Muhamed Abiad
Layal Tufiq Rifai
Layla Khaled Dhush
Lima Muhamed Zaarura
Lina Ali al-Hajj
Luay Abdel-Hadi
Lubna Nasser Kayed
Maha Khaled Obadi
Maher Imad Abdel-Moati
Mahmud Ahmed al-Hajj Mahmud
Mahmud Diab al-Hashem
Mahmud Fathi Ghali
Mahmud Hassan al-Dukhi
Mahmud Muhamed Kassem
Mahmud Nadwa
Mahmud Said Hussein
Mahmud Yaakub Saker
Majed Abdullah
Malak
Malak Fadel Dahabiri
Malak Riad Nebhani
Manal Mustafa Diab
Maria Ibrahim Said Aklan
Marian al-Ahmed
Mariam Muhamed Kassem
Mario Ayleh Damuli
Mario Jahshan
Marwa Abdel-Karim Afghani
Marwa Abdel-Karim Shehadeh
Marwa Abdel-Nasser Abu Hayam
Marwa Ahmed Abu Sahyun
Marwa al-Afandi
Marwa al-Shabiti
Marwa Fawaz Hadara
Marwa Hassanine
Marwa Jamal Merhi
Marwa Marwan Abdallah
Marwa Ahmed Shehadeh
Marwan Shehadeh
May Mustufa Ali
May Mustafa Awad
Maya Mouaz al-Hassan
Maya Philip Issa
Maya khaled Saadi
Mehdi Yussef Abdallah
Michel Shatat Geddon
Mona Abbud
Mona Ahmed Abu Sahyun
Mona Said Kassem
Mona Yussef al-Masri
Muhamed Abbas Awada
Muhamed Abu Sekit
Muhamed Ahmed Abu Salma
Muhamed Ahmed al-Hajj
Muhamed al-Hajj Hassan
Muhamed al-Hajj Moussa
Muhamed al-Nabulsi
Muhamed al-Rawi
Muhamed al-Safadi
Muhamed Ali Attieh
Muhamed Ali Shahrur
Muhamed Arafat al-Murshed
Muhamed Bassam al Murshed
Muhamed Bassam Attieh
Muhamed Hassan al-Duhki
Muhamed Hassan al-Hassan
Muhamed Hasaan Awd
Muhamed Hassan Esmael
Muhamed Ibrahim al-Nasser
Muhamed Issam al-Said
Muhamed Izzo Hamadeh
Muhamed Jamal Dandashi
Muhamed Kurbaj
Muhamed Johad Kalaa
Muhamed Khaled al-Yussef
Muhamed Khaled Badawiyeh
Muhamed Khaled Taha
Muhamed Khalil Mustafa
Muhamed Mahmud
Muhamed Mahud Yussef
Muhamed Moueen Zamzam
Muhamed Murad
Muhamed Mussa Agha
Muhamed Mussa al-Hajj
Muhamed Mussa Baalbaki
Muhamed Mussa Suwayli
Muhamed Nour al-Sharif
Muhamed Said Abbas
Muhamed Salem
Muhamed Sami Attieh
Muhamed Samir al-Waked
Muhamed Samir Khalifeh
Muhamed Taha
Muhamed Talal al-Adi
Muhamed Yasser Yussef
Muhamed Ghassan Issa
Munir Ghassan Bader
Munira Maher Wehbeh
Murad Abdel-Hadi
Mussa Hussein Awad
Mussa Issam Amuri
Mustafa Ahmed Haneen
Mustafa Ahmed Jaber
Mustafa Ghassan Jumaa
Mustafa Utour
Mustafa Wattar
Myriam Charbel Jehchane
Myriam Walid Awad
Nada Muhamed Wehbeh
Nadim Kayed Esmael
Nadim Nasser al-Sudaydani
Nadira Riad Serhan
Nagham Ghaleb Bekrawi
Nagham Kamal al-Hajj
Nagham Muhamed Naji
Nagham Yahya Hijazi
Nahil Muhamed al-Bar
Najah Nasser Bader
Najah Suheil Khadra
Nariman Nemer Dewali
Nesreen Kamul Abu_Ez
Nesreen Kamal al-Khatib
Nesreen Nasser Maaruf
Nibal Mussa Suleiman
Nicole Antoine Karam
Nicole Toni Daoud
Niveen Jamil Siblini
Nizar al-Shafii
Nour
Nour Ahmed Ali
Nour al-Huda Shehadeh
Nour al-Huda Ahmed Wehbeh
Nour al-Huda Omar Jumaa
Nour al-Huda Yussef Karzun
Nour Attieh
Nour Kanaan
Nour Maidani
Nour Muhamed Mansur
Nour Shadi al-Natur
Nour Yahya Karzun
Nourhan Khaled al-Sabaa
Ola Faraj Jumaa
Ola Saleh Attieh
Omar Akram Daher
Omar al-Kotob
Omar Bekrawi
Omar Ghunayem
Omar Ibrahim Ahmed
Omar Ibrahim Ahmed
Omar Issa Awad
Omar Naim Abdallah
Omar Riad Zidane
Osman Ibrahim Hamad
Osman Ismail Hassan
Rabih Abdel Halim
Rabih Rashid Mallah
Rabih Yussef Dakur
Raef Hanna Andraos
Ramez Hussein Awad
Rami Ahmed al-Ali
Rana Abdallah Abu Awdi
Rana Ahmed Nabulsi
Rana Ali Abdallah
Rana Attieh
Rana Khaled al-Fares
Rana Luay Abdallah
Raneen Jalal Yussef
Rania Abdallah al-Masri
Rania Muhamed Marmar
Rania Oussama al-Hajj Hassan
Rasha Al al-Abdallah
Rasha Hassan Hamad
Rawan Abdel-Rahmin al-Jammal
Rawan Ahmed Shebab
Rawan Hussein Mussa
Rawan Khalil Jumaa
Rawan Kheir Bashir
Rayan Diab
Rayan Munir Alawi
Rayan Nasser Ahmed
Razan Hussam Maidani
Reem Abadi
Reem Bader Hussein Bader
Reem Hussein Jumaa
Reem Ibrahim Hussein
Reem Kamal Salem
Reem Muhamed Khalil
Reem Said Awad
Riad Yasser Yussef
Rihan Yussef Kaush
Rima Salim Sbear
Rita Sharbel Shalita
Robert Rabih al-Assad
Roua Adnan Utour
Roy Samer Eid
Safa Abdel-Nasser
Salah Ahmed Abu al-Shabab
Salem Salem
Salem al-Nour
Saleh Khaled Nasser
Saly Suheil al-Habet
Samah Ghassan Karzun
Samah Kassem
Samah Marwan Saleh
Samer Khaled al-Mussa
Sami Muhamed Yussef
Sami Wael Taha
Samir Yussef Ghazal
Sara Jamal Shahrur
Sara Rashid Said
Sara Shadi al-Boheiri
Sawsan Izzao Hamadeh
Sayed Karakeh
Shadia Nazih al-Jammal
Shaheen Muhamed
Shaima Imad Barkaji
Shaima Khassem Dabbur
Shireen al-Sari
Soha Yahya Hussein
Sondos Abu Awdi
Souad Muhamed
Stephanie al-Hosh
Stephanie Dani Twak
Subhi Omar Suleiman
Subhi Riad Arabieh
Subhiyeh Ahmed Lubani
Suhaib Ali al-Jershi
Suhaib Hussain Serhan
Suleiman Muhamed Khalifeh
Suzanne Ghazi Mustafa
Taha Muhamed Lubani
Tala al-Shabiti
Tarek Akl
Tarek Ezzeddeen
Tarek Ibrahim Ghanem
Tarek Khaled Osman
Tarek Suhail Khodor
Wafa’ Hassan Awad
Wafa’ Sharabati
Wala’ Ahmed
Wala’ Khalil
Walid Ahmed al-Khatib
Walid al-Safadi
Wassim Muhamed al-Sayed
Wiam Muhamed Shehadeh
Wissam Abu al-Shabab
Wissam Abu Eid
Wissam Osman
Yasmeen Hussein Azzam
Yasser Awwad Azzam
Yasser Dawan
Yasser Fuad Jumaa
Yasser Muhamed al-Safuri
Yussef Al-Khatib
Yussef Mahmud Zeyd
Yussef Muhamed al-Arab
Zaher Hassan al-Arid
Zaynab Ayash
Zaynab Muhamed Salem
Zeid Melhem Wehbeh
Ziad al-Alumi
[ii] Alessandro Petti, The Architecture of Exile, Campus in Camps statement: http://www.campusincamps.ps/en/architecture-exile/
[iii] UNRWA Background on Dheisheh: http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=113
[iv] Maurice Blanchot, The Writing of Disaster, P76
