Municipalities and Councils - Australians for Palestine

“Designing Civic Encounter” by ArtTerritories
Trail 005: Mayssa Fottouch (Beirut)
interviews Hassan Khan (Cairo), Hassan
Khan then interviews Bassam Al Baroni
in Alexandria.
This is one of many interview trails
that have surfaced on ArtTerritories
(AT), an online initiative dedicated to
peer interviews addressing concerns
of art and culture in the Middle East
and the Arab world. Since its launch
in September 2010, ArtTerritories
has published interviews that have
addressed a range of issues such as
critical reflections on art education in
Egyptian institutions to more poetic
ideas on “exile,” the role of photography
in ethnographic research in Al Fara
Prison in Nablus, to issues of memory
and representation in Beirut’s National
Museum.
Even though AT dialogues mostly
happen in the virtual space, materialising
these dialogues in writing has become,
in some cases, the first step towards
realising events or productions in the
urban context. Very quickly, we found
ourselves responding to ideas emerging
from our trails.
One of the first contributions that
surfaced on the AT blog was an
interview with Palestinian architect
Yazid Anani on the occasion of the
exhibition that he co-curated with Vera
Tamari entitled Ramallah, the fairest of
them all. The conversation addressed
the transformation of public spaces,
shedding light on urban developments
taking place in Ramallah. As a means
of extending this dialogue with others
in the general public, ArtTerritories
proposed “Designing Civic Encounter,”
a four-day event investigating and
instigating civic agency towards the built
environment that will unfold over a long
weekend in July 2011.
The event starts on 21 July with
an urban tour within and around the
city edges of Ramallah, showcasing
locations that highlight various situations
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that are emblematic of larger urban and
political questions in Palestine. The tour
goes from Al Manara downtown to the
Wall closing in on Bir Nabalah Village,
Iskan Birzeit in Al Tirah neighbourhood,
Rawabi construction site near ‘Ajul and
Atara villages, and finally Jalazone
Refugee Camp adjacent to Beit El
settlement.
The tour intends to bring attention
to the use of public space as well as
prevailing trends in housing. Real estate
has become a very lucrative industry for
foreign and local investment. More and
more Palestinian families are taking out
huge loans from their banks to finance
their buildings or purchase new houses,
encouraging the emergence of a credit
culture in Palestine. On the other end,
there are areas suffering from Israeli
restrictions and the Wall that have been
turned into “ghost towns” full of deserted
buildings.
These situations as well as ideas
towards reversing them will be addressed
during the two-day Symposium and
Public Forum (22 and 23 July) that
follows the urban tour. Discussions
will be activated with presentations by
architects, teachers, urban planners,
activists, artists, and politicians. A
special effort has been made to invite
speaker presentations highlighting
other Arab cities. Pre-recorded video
presentations will be screened for a
live audience and followed up by Skype
Q&A sessions. Jordanian architect
Rami Daher will address neoliberal
urban transformations within the wider
regional context, pointing out similar
situations in other Arab cities. Hangar,
a research group from Beirut, will
present The Last Days of Carlton
exhibiting a series of urban landmarks
from Lebanon which are condemned
to destruction and thus risk being
forgotten.
We think of this small gesture as
an effort towards a dialogue about
Palestine that is engaged with
neighbouring Arab cities, despite the
deceptive distance that is imposed by
travel restrictions resulting from the
political situation.
The event closes with a full-day
workshop (24 July) with visionary
social architect Teddy Cruz. Born in
Guatemala, Cruz has been recognised
internationally for his urban research
on the Mexican/American border.
Blurring the lines between architecture,
activism, and art, he recently organised
the latest programme of “Political
Equator,” a bi-annual cross-border
mobile meeting engaging in socioeconomic,
urban, and environmental
conditions along the Tijuana-San Diego
border. The workshop is open to the
general public and highly recommend
to architects, artists, and social/urban
activists.
“Designing Civic Encounter” hopes
to create an alternative public space
for discussion, thus engendering more
civic participation in a creative way.
Programme
Urban Bus Tour, 21 July, 10 a.m. to
4:00 p.m.
Departing from Riwaq
Designing Civic Encounter
Symposium and Public Forum: 22–23
July, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Sharek Youth Forum
Workshop with Teddy Cruz entitled
“Diagramming Praxis: Where-Why-
Who-What-How?” 24 July, 10:00 a.m.
Sharek Youth Forum
All events are free and open to the
public. For reservations, please contact
c.designingcivicencounter@gmail.com
or phone 059-937-0860.
ArtTerritories is co-founded by artists
Shuruq Harb and Ursula Biemann.
“Designing Civic Encounter” is an
initiative by ArtTerritories sponsored by
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Riwaq-
Center. Visit www.artterritories.net for
more information.
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Burj Falastin. Photo by Ursula Biemann.
Bir Nabala. Photo by Ursula Biemann.
Urban Ramallah. Photos by Shuruq Harb (above and below).