Subjective mapping of Palestine

21 Sept

Spring — Autumn 2007

The Subjective atlas of Palestine was the output of a workshop of Palestinian artists held at the International Academy of Art in Ramallah. The artists from Gaza were involved through Internet and e-mail, because they were not allowed to travel to Ramallah. The atlas came into being on a initial question of the NGO ICCO (NL), that Subjective Editions turned into an open invitation to Khaled Hourani, the director of the academy in Ramallah. They hosted the project and invited Palestinian participants from all regions and generations to submit their visual voices.

Workshop at International Academy of Arts, Ramallah, by Khaled Hourani & Annelys de Vet, april 2007

According to Khaled Hourani, Artistic Director of the Academy, the workshop fit into the Academy’s educational and academic experimental contemporary arts program. The intention was to produce an atlas that was much more than a set of maps, but rather a collection of visual and textual ‘mappings’ of the lived reality of Palestine – social, cultural, geographical and political. The subject matter of the Atlas reflects this eclectic and precarious lived reality, covering topics as apparently incongruous as traditional embroidery, chickpeas, print media, road signs, natural landscapes, currency and national flags. Yet, taken in its entirety, the Atlas offers a remarkable and at times profound collection of vignettes of life in Palestine. More than romanticizing Palestinian culture, it confronts the daily realities of occupation, with astuteness, creativity and humour.

With the engagement of the International Academy of Art Palestine, the support of ICCO, and re-designed by Munther Jaber we were able to re-print the book in Palestine in a bilingual version. It was available in local stores and got broadly distributed, amongst others by the Palestinian authority who gave it as a relational gift.

The Subjective atlas of Palestine was awarded as one of the Best Designed Books of 2007, by the Dutch ‘Bestverzorgde Boeken’, juryreport:

“Sometimes when you come to judge a book you capitulate straight away purely because of its subject. The Subjective Atlas of Palestine is a case in point. What country appeals more to the imagination than Palestine!? Not least because of the constant stream of harrowing images that the media dish up to us almost daily. It is a tragedy that has been holding our collective conscience hostage ever since 1948. In effect, we are now barely able to form any kind of picture of what day-to-day life in Palestine is really like.

That brings us straight to what is special about this atlas, which puts the one-sided approach of Western media up for discussion and at the same time gives us a picture of the present state of the country. We see everyday life as it is lived, from the daily bread to the cultural, social and political agenda. Palestinian artists, photographers and designers give a picture of their country that is informative, confrontational, but above all stimulating. So much information in a modest little book whose design is itself almost invisible.

There are no expansive gestures or clever printing tricks here: that is not what this book is about. Excellent picture editing means that the qualitatively very variable pictorial matter takes on an unobtrusive and almost natural unity and coherence. The spacious margins create an impression of openness. Format and typography are restrained yet in no way flat. The rounded corners and the fact that the running text is printed in a mild grey add extra emphasis to the friendly character of the design. A remarkable document that speaks softly to convey an important message.”

re-publication of contributions

'My Father's Palestinian Nationality' by Baha Houkhary published on the cover of magazine ZemZem, may 2008

‘Art School Drawings after four years in Nablus’ by Hafez Omar, as main image for the Studium Generale program at Artez, 2008

Selection of alternative flags, added with the logo of the University of North Carolina in the shape of the Palestinian flag, as a poster for their ‘Palestine week’, 2008