Our Concept

Our Concept

At the turn of the 20th century, the Hejaz, a narrow-gauge railway built south from Damascus to transport pilgrims to Mecca during the Hajj, represented a tangible, if utopic, dream of a united region during Ottoman rule. Part divine aspiration, part vehicle for political gain, the train was designed to extend existing railways from Istanbul through present-day Turkey to Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia and, finally, to the holiest cities of Islam. A decade later, the British, eager to replace the Ottoman Empire with its own, initiated what would become decades of European battles in the region. The dream was finally obliterated: Lawrence of Arabia and a Bedouin army repeatedly blew the railway apart during WWI. It never recovered but the tracks still remain.

We Have Woven the Motherlands with Nets of Iron investigates what is left of the withered dream to transcend physical and metaphysical borders after the rise and fall of empires. Having endured wars and conquests, the trains persist, limping along, rented out to nostalgic tourists and enthusiasts. Trains, like Arab unity itself, have a romantic geography: nearly obsolete, valued for historical symbolism, begging to be updated or made once again relevant. In contrast, various countries in the region are initiating modern railway systems that can reconnect citizens to the landscape.

In examining dichotomies between history and current nationalisms, the exhibition We Have Woven the Motherlands with Nets of Iron will make use of contributions from artists and historians from each of the five countries of the Hejaz (from Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Syria) to produce performances on movable platforms, archival projects using remnants of the rail lines and other installations, all of which will take place on the rails in Jordan.

The exhibition is part of Apexart’s Franchise project for 2011, and will run from the 4th of May until the 4thth of June 2011. The exhibition is curated by Eric Gottesman and Toleen Touq.

Photo of the train wreck in the Nefud Desert of Saudi Arabia by Jerry Miller, 70images.com

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mapping Identity in Space and Time

Through our travel route we’ve been talking to drivers of buses and taxis in Syria, operators of trains in Turkey, artists, graphic designers, sellers of sweets and metal and mobile phones, and our partners in transportation across borders controls or in popular restaurants.

We speak in Arabic mostly, and the question of origin always comes up if only for curiosity. We are Jordanian, Circassian, Palestinian, Lebanese and American (our bloodlines bundles into one, yes) and in Syria our friends are from Iraqi, Armenian, Chechnian and Palestinian origins. In south Turkey we met quite a few people who spoke Arabic and were of ‘Arab’ origin; they are now citizens of Turkey because of the lines drawn around them – the man who sold us Knafe in Antakya said his father ended up in Turkey but his uncle is in Syria. Last night in Istanbul we met a sweet young woman who did not think there is a ‘real’ Turk; her grandfather is Yemeni and her name is Bedra Melika.

I can’t help but think that these borders have created a displacement of language and culture – people ending up on the wrong side of the fence by force of another power. Bilad Al-Sham has always been a multiplicity of ethnicities but after post-colonialist nationalization people are citizens of either Syria or Palestine or Lebanon or Jordan. Through time people have internalized these national identities as the discourse of these new border systems demanded of them.

In reality however we are seeing that borders are still permeable, and there is a metaphysical connection between people that transcends these borders. Linguistically and culturally we feel an affinity and a net that goes beyond passports.

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