Keep Your Eye on the Wall: Palestinian Landscapes

(Hardback, 1)

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Description

In art and literature, walls are frequently used as powerful symbols of division. For the people of Palestine, however, the wall that cuts deeply into their land and society is all too real, snaking through over 700 kilometres of the West Bank. It throttles Palestinians, seals off Israelis, and all but guarantees perpetual ignorance, fear and rage on both sides. Keep Your Eye on the Wall brings together seven award-winning artist-photographers and four essayists, all responding to the Wall in images or words, specially commissioned for this book. The photographers present unique perspectives, whether documenting the journey of labourers across the barrier, the desolation of abandoned checkpoints or the tattered posters of "martyrs" on a wall in Gaza. Informed, critical and powerful, the photographs constitute, in the words of French philosopher of art Georges Didi-Huberman, 'a space for struggle'. The book fetaures photography from Taysir Batniji, Raed Bawayah, Rula Halawani, Noel Jabbour, Raeda Saadeh, Steve Sabella and Kai Wiedenhofer; text from Malu Halasa, Yael Lerer, Christine Leuenberger and Adania Shibli and a foreword from Raja Shehadeh.

Reviews

'Shockingly beautiful and evocative - With great skill and beauty, the artists echo the feelings of much of the Palestinians that have to make do with life in a divided, disfigured land - Through their photographs, the artists have succeeded in universalising a great, deep wound that will take years to heal.' Raja Shehadeh 'A beautifully balanced combination of visual and textual explorations of the wall as a physical and psychological barrier ... the possible benefits and pitfalls of incorporating the wall into artistic production are tackled head-on ... While art certainly can beautify, it can also serve as a vehicle to expose a truth, provoke a new perspective in the viewer, pose questions, document events, educate or tell a story. The photographs in "Keep Your Eye on the Wall" do all this and more ... Whatever your take on the dangers or benefits of art inspired by the wall, this is a beautiful book, balancing insightful, thought-provoking writing with a wonderful and varied selection of photographs by some of Palestine's most talented artists.' Daily Star, Lebanon "This project is a powerful endeavour, and creates a tangible and powerful collection of images and thoughts on this particular neo-colonial structure. The photographs and reflections that it contains spark immediate recall in anyone who has experienced the wall and its effects firsthand, and has significance in communicating an awareness of its tangible existence and its ramifications for readers who approach it from a greater distance. At the same time, it presents a certain stimulus or provocation for thought rather than a summation or thesis regarding the ongoing existence of such a management and constriction of lived space." Warscapes 'Seven artist-photographers and four essayists searingly present the wall in pictures and text, in a beautiful accordion bound book, that like the wall, extends in a long line from beginning to end ... One can only hope that this wall will someday fall and the disputed areas will be peacefully reconciled to the advantage of both sides. This book embodies that hope.' Publishers Weekly. 'Stunning testimony.' The Booklist Reader

Author Bio

Olivia Snaije is a Paris-based journalist and editor. She has worked for various newspapers and magazines, and as a book commissioning editor for a publishing company and has contributed to, written, and translated several books. She is the former executive editor of Alef, a London-based culture magazine about the Middle East, and was Editor in-Chief of World Media in Paris, a magazine published by a group of twenty-six newspapers worldwide. Mitchell Albert is a London-based editor. Since 2002 he has worked as a commissioning editor for non-fiction and fiction books, as a freelance book and magazine editor, and as a programme manager overseeing literary events. From 2007 - 11 he edited the literary journal of PEN International.