Ongoing house demolitions in Jordan Valley, expulsions of Palestinians from Jerusalem, ever more occupier’s Settlements, detention of minors, killing of peaceful demonstrators, besieging of a captive population in Gaza and honourable Israelis find something to protest about as they begin to feel the price of racist fantasy is too much. Shame knows no beginning.
Read here.
‘In Ramallah, Running 2010′ by Guy Mannes-Abbott
Manuscript in first draft, 5 of 14 scrolls/parts
In Ramallah, Running is now contracted to appear in February/March 2012 with Black Dog, more details/announcements to follow [24.04.2012 UPDATE: publication pushed back into summer 2012, watch for update very soon].
I’m very happy because the book was conceived and developed independently and will appear within the kind of urgent time frame that is appropriate to its subject and hard to achieve without compromise -or at all. I finished my 20,000 word series of e.things -a unique conjuring of place as well as the people of Ramallah and almost the whole open-air camp that is Ramallah District- in mid-September 2010 [after my Residency at al Qattan Foundation in Ramallah]. The series is made up of fourteen parts, alternating running within the limits of the city and walking out from it to, along, beyond and off limits, discovering how mobile they are. How they really work.
e.things as a form were crucial to this project because they’re the only way I could say what needed to be said. Often exhibited or published in a visual art context [with the best visual minds of my generation!], they’ve grown into a highly singular body of texts; the shortest of which is a single line called ‘go’ from 1997, the longest is this series; In Ramallah, Running. (more…)
Shumon Basar and Jack Persekian Wash Hands…
Jack Persekian’s performance of Nablus Soap at the ICA, as part of the Mathaf’s Interference weekend, was brilliant.
The work takes off from a show he put on with Mona Hatoum back in the early days in Jerusalem. It recounts that earlyness, the basic space, cold and uninviting and the process of arriving at the piece -Present tense [1996]- by Mona H., its installation and the historical context of a disastrous willingness to compromise with Occupation in the form of ‘Oslo’. An apologetic Abu Amar is scratched-in which raised a big laugh and the whole piece is damn fine, not least as testament to Nablus.
As Jack and Shumon talked, the film was paused on one of the many Occupation watchtowers that terrorise the Palestinian Hills, lest any of us forget the bloody stain it represents… (more…)
Free Free Palestine [BIG] Hyde Park London 2003 [Ph. Guy Mannes-Abbott]
As leaked documents make concrete, the state of Israel is panicked about the Palestinian declaration of independence in September and its recognition at the UN. I think we all know what will happen and Germany’s desire to see ethnic cleansing and siege continue will be supported by the UK [and Tony Blair of course, still fighting his permanent war. At least Blair used the phrase Israel-Palestine -just like Bosnia-Herzogovina; site of Crimes Against Humanity- while promoting his paperbacked memoirs, while the BBC journo -Sarah Raven?- couldn't bring herself to say Palestine] and usual Imperialista desperadoes…
In the context of where things are now, I think it’s important that the world starts to recognise the Palestinian right to exist, such that they support and recognise its independence in September (more…)
Reviewed by Guy Mannes-Abbott
Friday, 22 April 2011
Writing about William Wordsworth, Jacques Ranciere celebrated a consideration for “all that is too small” in his poetry about the post-revolutionary landscape of France. The theorist also articulated a post-millennial consensus; lauding the poet for taking care of “the dead child that every politics abandons”. Such a child is the moral focus of Sari Nusseibeh’s new book, but with unintended results. (more…)
CAMP-Al-Jaar-Qabla-al-Daar The People From The Family of Abu Saoud Were Kicked Out [Ph. Guy Mannes-Abbott]
click IMAGE to link to notes from a biennial – appendix [i] in conversation with CAMP
Conversation with Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran [CAMP] March 2011 Sharjah, UAE
Guy Mannes-Abbott [gma]
Tell me a little about your background and approach.
Shaina [Anand]
Broadly speaking my background is film. Actually documentary practice, and a lot of what we do as CAMP as well -Ashok’s background is architecture and “new media”… (more…)
In Ramallah, Running by Guy Mannes-Abbott [2011]
I can’t resist posting this image from one of the distributor’s sites for Translated By, there’s a page of other images/details here.
This is a tiny excerpt of the excerpt obviously. As a whole, my short running texts within Ramallah itself alternate with longer walking essays at/in/beyond the limits all around, which multiply and abstract in ways peculiar to this unique Occupation. Hence my attempt to reconjure the actual place, and actual people in their place. The whole text begins as it appears to do here, though this excerpt of 1500 words is made up only of running texts.
The actual book -In Ramallah, Running- is coming together in all its ambitious complexity! (more…)
click IMAGE to link to notes from a biennial – on reflection
21.03.2011, 12:01
by Guy Mannes-Abbott
The opening week of this year’s Biennial was very intense; promising and delivering much. I’m glad I had early access to it all, could play that off repeated circuits and discrete returns, along with mini wanders with various artists and writers, old and new friends, listen to other’s highlights, tips, and ‘zoom’ in and out of the city, region and world in the process.
I was invited as a writer to write critically and I would fail the Biennial as much as myself if I did otherwise. I’m a demanding judge or at least have very high thresholds and am not biddable! Yet Sharjah Biennial 10 has been a triumph for all those involved. It took big risks (more…)
click IMAGE to link to notes from a biennial – on archivism
