Traveling Open Call for Palestinian Artists (30 August Deadline)

[Allenby Bridge Cross at Jordanian-Palestinian border. Image from US Library of Congress] [Allenby Bridge Cross at Jordanian-Palestinian border. Image from US Library of Congress]

Traveling Open Call for Palestinian Artists (30 August Deadline)

By : Jadaliyya Reports

The River Has Two Banks invites Palestinian artists/writers/thinkers traveling via Jordan to stay for an additional night/day to present their work in Amman in an artist talk at Makan art space. The politics of segregation has greatly hindered travel across the east and west banks of the River Jordan. For those in Jordan, travel into Palestine remains a dream that is determined/prevented by an Israeli visa. For Palestinians living in the West Bank, Jordan is the only exit point. This border, which is referred to as “the Bridge” is vested with political and social connotations from the last 40 years, serving both as a connection in the present and a disconnection from the past.

‘The Travelling Artist Open Call’ takes advantage of existing traffic and proposes a new way to rethink mobility restrictions; rather than seeing it as an obstacle, perceiving it as an opportunity to address new audiences, make new friends, and cement existing friendships in Jordan. The open call launches the first of many activities organized by The river has two banks, an ongoing curatorial initiative addressing the growing distance between cultural practitioners living on both sides of the river by instigating connections and rethinking shared social and political histories.

The river has two banks is a curatorial collaboration between Shuruq Harb, Samah Hijawi and Toleen Touq, and is kindly supported by the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre and the Young Arab Theater Fund, Makan Art Space and Bonita Hotel.

Eligibility: ‘The Traveling Artist Open Call’ is open to artists from all disciplines as well as thinkers and writers, who live in Palestine, and whose travel dates fall between September and November 2012.

Selection: Three to four artists will be invited to present their work at Makan Art Space in Amman. Selection will be based on artist’s proposed travel dates and Makan Art Space’s availability. Priority will be given to artists/thinkers/writers who have not presented their work in Amman. 

Accommodation: Housing will be provided for the selected artists for their additional one night stay, as well as transportation from the bridge and to the airport the next day. Artists are therefore invited to arrive in Amman one day prior to their scheduled travel dates abroad.

Application: Those interested should send the following information to samahhijawi@gmail.com in an email entitled ‘Traveling artists open call’ by 30 August 2012. 

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Telephone number
  • Address
  • Short biography
  • Link to website or previous works (3 samples only)
  • Short description (2 paragraphs) for proposed artist talk theme. The curators are open to various forms of artist talks


 

 دعوة مفتوحة للفنانين والكتاب والمفكرين الفلسطينيين المتنقلين عبر الأردن للإقامة ليوم إضافي في عمّان ليقدموا شهادات فنية عن أعمالهم في مساحة "مكان" الفنية

لقد أعاقت سياسات العزل المتعمدة إلى حد كبير التنقل بين ضفتي نهر الأردن الشرقية والغربية. وبالنسبة لمن يعيش في الأردن، لا يزال السفر إلى فلسطين حلما يعتمد تحقيقه على تأشيرة دخول إسرائيلية. أما الفلسطينيون الذين يعيشون في الضفة الغربية، فيبدو الأردن بالنسبة لهم مجرد بوابة للخروج. هذه الحدود، التي يكنى عنها بـ "الجسر" اكتسبت مفاهيم سياسية واجتماعية في الأربعين سنة الماضية، وقد باتت تؤدي بوظيفتين في الوقت نفسه، فهي صلة وصل مع الراهن ووسيلة قطع مع الماضي

هذا النداء المفتوح يتخذ من حركة العبور الراهنة مادة لإعادة التفكير في القيود المفروضة على حرية التنقل، أكثر مما يعتبرها مجرد عقبة، مدركا أنها فرصة مناسبة لإنشاء جمهور، وخلق صداقات، وتمتين صداقات موجودة أساسا في الأردن

"للنهر ضفتان" هو مبادرة مستمرة لجسر المسافات المتنامية بين الناشطين الثقافيين على جانبي النهر من خلال تحريضهم على التواصل وإعادة التفكير بالتاريخ الاجتماعي والسياسي المشترك بين الضفتين، وهو مبادرة مشتركة تطلقها شروق حرب، سماح حجاوي وتولين توق

المشروع بدعم و إنتاج: مركز السكاكيني الثقافي، صندوق مسرح الشباب العربي، مكان للفن (مكان – فسحة فنية) وفندق بونيتا

الأهلية: دعوة المفتوحه موجه للفنانين على تنوع أدواتهم الفنية وكذلك للمفكرين والكتاب، الذين يعيشون في فلسطين والذين سيعبرون أو قد يعبرون إلى الأردن بين سبتمبر\\ أيلول ونوفمبر\\ تشرين الثاني من العام الجاري

اختيار: ثلاثة أو اربعة فنانين سيدعون لتقديم أعمالهم في "مكان" بعمان. سيتم اختيارهم بناء على تاريخ مرورهم بالمنطقة وقابلية "مكان" لاستقبالهم. الأفضلية ستكون للفنانين، المفكرين والكتاب الذين لم يسبق لهم أن عرضوا أعمالهم في عمان

الإقامة: يتكفل النداء المفتوح بتأمين كلفة إقامة ليلة واحدة في عمان لكل مشارك، ويتأمين نقله من وإلى الجسر أو المطار الدولي في اليوم التالي. وعليه، يفترض بالفنانين الذين سيشاركون في فعاليات النداء ترتيب زمن حلولهم بعمان قبل يوم واحد من مواعيد مرورهم بالمدينة التي قد تكون مجدولة مسبقا

على المهتمين إرسال المعلومات المفصلة أدناه إلى
 samahhijawi@gmail.com

في موعد أقصاه 30 آب\\ أغسطس

بعنوان
Traveling Artists Open Call,  2012

- الاسم، والعنوان ورقم الهاتف - البريد الألكتروني

- بيوغرافيا مختصرة مع رابط للموقع الألكتروني أو أعمال سابقة (ثلاثة نماذج فقط) - وصف مختصر (فقرتان) للموضوع الذي سيتحدث عنه الفنان.

ملحوظة أخيرة: المنظمون منفتحون لأشكال مختلفة من التعبير في الشهادات الفنية

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412