Accessible Approach

Palestine Street in Dubai. Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. Palestine Hospital in Cairo. Palestine, Texas. Cyper Palestine. In German speaking countries there are Palästinensertücher (Keffaya headscarves). Down the street, Palestinian Specialties are served. Eating Palestine. Breathing Palestine. Palestinian History. Dreaming Palestine. Thinking Palestine.
 

historical mosaic depiciting parts of historical Palestine
part of Madaba Map: Ashkelon, Gaza, Negev, part of Sinai
the original Madaba Map depicting Palestine approx. 550 AD is part of the floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church St.George in Madaba, Jordan

Mapping memories: 

agricultural land and green houses in front of sea
Northern Gaza

In the garden surrounding the newly built house of my friends we shared the first ripe peach. Laughter and excited voices of hundreds of schoolchildren exceeded the roaring and screeching of the wild animals in the zoo of Gaza City.  

agricutlural land, green houses and rewsidential houses in front of sea
Northern Gaza

With photographers and video artists, from around and about, we grilled fish on the beach somewhere along the coast. Under a print of Picasso’s Guernica we sipped maramayya with a Gazan painter/theater director and an illustrator working mainly for children books.  

panorama view from hill top overlooking Gaza
Panorama view over Gaza near Karni Crossing from Al-Mintar, the highest spot in Gaza, overlooking ……

 

cactuses, olive groves and 4 story building
..... farmland ....

Nisreen, writing reports for an international organisation, was never too tired to conjure up an excellent vegetarian maqluba (Palestinian rice casserole, served upside down) for me. Then eight-year-old Anat wanted to play city-country-river (children’s word game) rather than doing her homework.  

overlooking grey concrete houses
... the city ...

Her fifteen-year-old cousin took me out to do the shopping together. She was proud to protect me. Joumna, a social worker, proposed to have our cappuccinos on the seaside terrace of Al-Deira Hotel.  

overlooking grey concrete houses
... the Mediterranean ...

An architect and furniture designer has started to concentrate on producing furniture for international clients; a trade and export Gaza always was famous for …… and … there are many more stories….

 

destroyed television station
... remains of a bombed TV-Station in 2002 ...

I hear myself thinking sentences. Fragments. Words I read in books, heard in films. Expressed by those in camps, wars, captivity. And by those standing nearby. Now some of these sentences are mine. Too. 

wall with blue tiles, a big rectangle piece has no tiles
Tiles from Isfahan in the Blue Mosque in Cairo, 2003

Looking for missing pieces.
The canvas remains empty.
Silent walls. Flowers hide their magic. Low sky.
 

black canvas
Photographer: Nick Ut Cong Huynh, Vietnam, The Associated Press. Trangbang, South Vietnam, 8 June 1972. Phan Thi Kim Phuc (center) flees from the scene where South Vietnamese planes have mistakenly dropped napalm – my first image of war.

The discourse on photographic depiction implodes in my brain. Where to hide from the avalanche of images? How do you deal with reality?
Images in my head. Images collected in Gaza in 2005 and 2006. Wanting to see life. Browsing my archive. I never thought I would show these images. Somehow I felt ashamed having them, these digitized moments, digitized indignity, taken from a distance.

“Kikeriki!” in the middle of the night – from where? From the roof of the nearby hotel in Cairo?The kikeriki was transmitted via the live streaming into the dark sleeplessness. A rooster in Gaza, mistaking shell lit skies for day break.

Compiling these files is an attempt to structure different perspectives on this place and beyond ......

words and photography by Rayelle Niemann, 2008/2005


 

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Gaza - scattered mosaic
Accessible Approach
OTHER PROJECTS ON CITYSHARING
In the Shadow of the Pyramids
Moving on – Moving back – Moving on
Fragmented Letters
Reaching Boundaries
Coincidental Destinies
Palestinian Dictionary
What remains and Things to come

FEATURED THEME ON CITY SHARING

EL MATAM EL MISH MASRY
by ASUNCION MOLINOS GORDO
-
This project is an instrument for common critical analysis to help understand the reasons behind Egyptians’ diminishing …

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LETTERS TO FRITZ AND PAUL
by INAS HALABI
-
The project Letters to Fritz and Paul focuses on the expeditions of the Swiss cousins, lovers and scientists, Fritz and …

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MODERN LEAVES
by SARAH BURGER
-
The planned modern city of Brasilia attracted me since a long time. Her defined shape, location and function proceded he …

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CITRACIT
by ADRIEN GUILLET
-
Youri Telliug talks with the artist Adrien Guillet about his project Citracit

Youri Telliug - What is Citracit …

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NARRATIONS OF FLIGHTS
by NIGIST GOYTOM
-
In 2013 more than 45 million people have been forced to leave their homes. This amounts to the biggest number of refugees …

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A RUG - POST-ORIENTALISM
by SULAFA HIJAZI
-
The on going debate on Arab identity and its (cultural) representation is strongly shaped by Edward Saidʼs formative …

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WAM _ WORLD AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM
by ASUNCION MOLINOS GORDO
-
WAM is a site-specific work that uses the historical trope of the cabinet of curiosities to explore the introduction of …

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MORE CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE FOLLOWING

A
Akram Al Halabi ]
Atelier für Sonderaufgaben ]
B
Baggenstos/Rudolf ]
Basam Baroni and Jeremy Beaudry ]
Taysir Batniji ]
Hannes Brunner ]
Sarah Burger ]
C
Francisco Paco Carrascosa ]
D
Dector Dupuy ]
Erik Dettwiler ]
Ala’ Diab ]
Dlungwana & Gumbi ]
E
Egypt - 25th January ]
Sherif El-Azma ]
Shady El-Noshokaty ]
Mohamed Elshahed ]
Fawzy Emrany ]
F
forget 2 forget ]
Abrie Fourie ]
Anselmo Fox ]
G
Lamya Gargash ]
• Gaza - scattered mosaic •
A Gentil Carioca ]
Heiner Goebbels ]
Malak Gomaa ]
Nigist Goytom  ]
Adrien Guillet ]
H
Inas Halabi ]
Here I Stand ]
Sulafa Hijazi ]
I
Saba Innab ]
K
Ulrike Kuschel ]
L
Gabriela Löffel ]
Heinrich Lüber ]
Christin Lahr ]
Mariann Landolt ]
Jason Larkin ]
Björn Larsson ]
Yasser Abdel Latif ]
Emanuel Licha ]
Marcelo Lima ]
M
Made In Musina ]
Laura Martin ]
moddr_ ]
Naeem Mohaiemen ]
Asuncion Molinos Gordo ]
N
Mimi Cherono Ng’ok ]
Rayelle Niemann ]
Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi ]
No Condition is Permanent ]
O
Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis ]
P
Pilgrimages ]
Silvia Popp ]
R
Youssef Rakha ]
S
Raeda Saadeh ]
Lina Selander ]
Lerato Shadi ]
Bahia Shehab ]
stadt.labor ]
Vassiliea Stylianidou ]
Syria _ files ]
T
Treibsand ]
U
urbaninform ]
V
Laurence Vale ]
Costa Vece ]
W
Lee Wen ]
Z
Margot Zanni ]
Michel Zayat ]

 

INVITED-PROJECTS