On The Road
On the Road (2019)
For the Residency organized in Sebastiya in 2019 by the French-German Cultural Center in Palestine, I worked with nine artists arriving from Germany, France and Palestine. The project invited them to discover the place through its people, culture and landscape, while confronting the conditions that determine how one moves – or cannot move – through Palestine.
The road became both a means of discovery and a recurring question. Journeys took the artists through a fragmented and segregated space, across checkpoints, along bypass roads and past concrete walls, settlements and army camps. Movement required constant negotiation. These conditions informed the works that emerged, but so did the conversations, friendships and exchanges that developed along the way.
The artists’ projects took different directions, bringing together photography, glass-making, film, performance, music and food. Each opened a way of understanding the relationship between people and place, and the ways that cultural expression moves across boundaries even when bodies cannot.
In From Sebastiya to Shaveh Shemron, Maxime Peltier walked along the frontiers near Sebastiya, collecting objects, rocks and plants to produce cyanotypes. Working with materials found in the landscape, he questioned the artificiality of the boundaries imposed upon it and the divisions they create.
With Hollow Form, Dima Srouji considered the human breath as a means of expression and a force capable of giving form. In a context where people cannot move their bodies freely through space, her work proposed another kind of movement, one that challenges the physical restrictions imposed by occupation.
Yasmine Benabdallah’s It’s people, it’s sky, it’s scent traced connections between Chile and Bethlehem. Having met descendants of Palestinian families in Santiago, she searched for their relatives in Palestine. Her journey brought inherited memories and nostalgia into conversation with the present, exploring the distance between a Palestine remembered from afar and the realities of life there today.
In Latino-Arab Rewind, Edna Martinez and Romeo Natur explored shared rhythmic traditions between Arabic and Latino cultures. Their dance music project moved between Jaffa and Cartagena, drawing on generations of cultural exchange. Music offered a space in which connections could be heard and experienced across geographical boundaries.
For Itinéraire, Michael Maurissens engaged local craftsmen, labourers and artists in spontaneous conversations and encounters. His choreographed video focused on the movement of their hands, bringing close attention to gestures through which skill, artistry and cultural identity are carried and communicated.
In Void, Lukas Zerbst worked inside an abandoned building in Ramallah, exploring the predicament of the city’s older structures through performance. The work was seen entirely from the viewpoint of his camera. Its framing became part of the performance itself, shaping how the building, his actions and the ideas behind them were perceived.
Mirna Bamieh and Suzanne Matar, working through Palestine Hosting Society, developed Our Nabulsi Table. Following a food trail through the streets and souks of Nablus, they researched the history, ingredients and practices of traditional Nabulsi cuisine. Their work culminated in a festive banquet at Al Kayed Palace in Sebastiya, bringing research to the table as a shared experience among friends.
For me, these projects were connected by the attention the artists gave to the people they met and the places they encountered. Curating the residency meant bringing these different approaches into a shared conversation, while allowing each work to develop its own language. The time spent in Sebastiya, working together, exchanging knowledge, sharing meals and telling stories, was central to that process. It gave meaning to the works and deepened our understanding of the context, the place and its people.
Project initiated and organized by: The French-German Cultural Center in Palestine. Mona Kreigler, Adèle Spieser and Raneen Ibraheem with Jury Committee: Raja Shehadeh, Reem Talhami, Farah Saleh and Kareem Kattan