Archive for the ‘the political’ Category
October 27, 2011
Deir Ghassanah from the restored ‘ruins of al Khawas’ tomb & masjid [Ph. G Mannes-Abbott 2010]
The much anticipated arrival in English of a second volume of Mourid Barghouti’s memoirs is now close enough to touch… Indeed, I have it here in my happy fingers. My efforts to try to read it in Arabic, with only a basic grasp of the language, met an honourable end without ever getting close to the uniquely precise presence of its author in his words…
Publication of I Was Born There, I was Born Here is November 7th and Mourid will be appearing at Oxford University, the Bristol Festival of Ideas, and London’s Southbank Centre. I’m reserving comment on the book for reasons that will become clear, but if you’ve never seen Mourid’s words come to life in his voice right in front of you then waste no time in getting hold of a seat or a ticket at these events… (more…)
Tags:adania shibli, al khawas, bloomsbury, deir ghassanah, i saw ramallah, i was born there i was born here, in ramallah running, john berger, midnight & other poems, mourid barghouti, ramallah, ramallah district, shahid, the independent, yaffa
Posted in being the human, in ramallah running, palestine, the literary, the political | Leave a Comment »
October 24, 2011
My hand-made and -cut rough mock-up of In Ramallah, Running this night…
I can’t resist sharing my pleasure at having assembled all the elements of In Ramallah, Running in hard form for the first time tonight in preparation for a big design and layout meeting tomorrow. It’s very strange to materialise something that has existed in my mind as a project and proposal, then a place and people as well as a piece of my own inevitably elliptical work, before becoming a project once more with a range of very special people responding to and contributing work to the book, for all of that to eventually come together from all over the world and now to have a dummy of it in my fingers and see that it is pretty much as conceived -albeit only held together by a single bulldog clip- except that it’s so much better in actuality! (more…)
Tags:black dog, guy mannes-abbott, in ramallah running, paul noble
Posted in being the human, in ramallah running, palestine, the literary, the political, the visual, visual art vanguard | 2 Comments »
October 23, 2011
Brecht House 1. Lövstigen, Lidingö, Stockholm 1939-40
In a wintery Stockholm [exquisitely lit but otherwise painful] a week ago I finally managed to take self and camera to what turns out to be the site of the house that Brecht stayed in during 1939-40 -and where he wrote Mother Courage and Her Children- until Sweden lost its nerve before an apparently irresistible Hitler and Brecht -the persecuted and fugitive leftist- had to move on… (more…)
Tags:bertolt brecht, erdmut wizisla, guy mannes-abbott, Lövstigen, libris, lidingo, mother courage and her children, stockholm, the independent, walter benjamin
Posted in the literary, the political | 1 Comment »
September 6, 2011
Francis Ponge [still from French documentary]
Primarily, this is a brief advertisement for CB Editions‘s irresistible bi-lingual edition of the great Francis Ponge; Unfinished Ode to Mud, translated by Beverley Bie Brahic in 2008. It’s a selection from what she has translated as The Defence of Things and Pieces, some of the latter being their first appearances in English…
So, firstly, please get hold of a copy of the book from the publishing miracle that is CB Editions whom, it’s worth knowing, work on very short print runs. I have no links etc., but urge you to take up their current offer here, while getting hold of this beautiful selection and give copies to people that you wish loved you…
‘Unfinished Ode to Mud’ itself, is also an ode to the Resistance (more…)
Tags:a utopia of fine dust, aa files 42, beth archer, beverley bie brahic, cb editions, charles fourier, dirty utopianism, e.things, english civil war, forting, francis ponge, guy mannes-abbott, italo calvino, pieces, seashores, the country of the blind and other stories, the defence of things, the elephant and castle urban forest, the literature machine, the voice of things, unfinished ode to mud
Posted in being the human, the elephant and castle urban forest, the literary, the political | 1 Comment »
August 8, 2011
Looking like Yaffa in ’48…
As Though She Were Sleeping, By Elias Khoury
Reviewed by Guy Mannes-Abbott
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Journeying towards Mount Ararat, the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam wrote of cultivating a sixth sense, “the sense of attraction to a mountain”. Writing about food, American novelist James Salter quoted Brillat-Savarin approvingly on his notion of a sixth sense, “physical desire”. The other five senses, he wrote, are optimised only in “sexual union”.
The Lebanese writer Elias Khoury belongs in such exalted company in literary terms. His new novel also pivots on mountains – in Lebanon – and appreciations of sexual union. Indeed, it was one of many books banned by the Mubarak regime for its explicitness. Khoury writes about the scent of words, which take on such immaterial qualities that writing itself works like a sixth sense in his fiction.
Read more here or (more…)
Tags:armenia, as though she were sleeping, brillat-savarin, elias khoury, guy mannes-abbott, in ramallah running, james salter, maclehose press, osip mandelshtam, the independent
Posted in being the human, palestine, the literary, the political | Leave a Comment »
August 3, 2011
I’ll keep it brief, but isn’t it nice to see Hosni!
It seems so long now and I for one have been missing him. Of course his ‘former’ colleagues remain largely in place and there’s a long way to go to even begin to consolidate the revolution. But the break with the past is good, the rest we know will take blood, resolve and time…
Of course, the regime has been pushed to get this far, almost week by week, and that will go on until real change is achieved. Change only ever happens like this. When someone tells you that shouting, anger, protest, rebellion even defensive or strategic acts of violence never gets anyone anywhere, as autocrats large and small always waste their breath saying, well; laugh in their faces and press on…
I’m sure Fruit Store regulars know from your own experience that tired, jaded, reactionary, conservative, No-sayers always only ever respond to force -or anyway forcefulness- however boring it is to have to resort to it. In that respect there are continuities between Tahrir’s very expensively acquired and yet only partial freedoms and much less dramatic ones closer to home -and yes, I’m writing as an urbanforester when I make that point [not that the extrapolation necessarily works the other way around, of course].
Anyway, hooray-hello-Hosni; lets see much more of you and yours in future and work painstakingly through your crimes to ensure that justice is seen to be done and change is institutionalised.
Meanwhile, check the current issue of Bidoun and it’s programme of summery Seminars at the Serpentine here.
Tags:bidoun, guy mannes-abbott, mubarak, serpentine gallery, tahrir, the elephant and castle urban forest
Posted in being the human, palestine, the elephant and castle urban forest, the political | 8 Comments »
July 13, 2011
‘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…)
Tags:adania shibli, al qattan, artschoolpalestine, black dog publishing, e.things, emily jacir, francis alys, guy mannes-abbott, in ramallah running, jananne al-ani, jean fisher, khalil rabah, mark titchner, najwan darwish, olaf nicolai, palestine, paul noble, ramallah, samar martha
Posted in in ramallah running, palestine, the literary, the political, the visual | 3 Comments »
July 13, 2011
The Country of the Blind and Other Stories Installation shots CAMP with GM-A Folkestone Triennial [ongoing]
CAMPuter.org now has a good page on the film here with cat. text, shot-lists, stills, credits… There’s also a link here to pad.ma where the film is archived…
But I strongly recommend heading down to Folkestone, not only to see the film in situ where it’s installed beautifully and offers optimised-viewing, but also to see all the other art on show throughout a fascinating town. The harbour tastes irresistible and in the pubs on the water front a version of the film is always looping…
Folkestone Triennial’s page is here and they have weekend tours conducted by some high calibre guides not least this weekend with Achim Borchardt Hume here. It takes 53 minutes to get there…
Thanks everyone for the positive feedback.
Tags:achim borchardt hume, ashok sukumanar, CAMP, camputer.org, folkestone triennial, francis ponge, guy mannes-abbott, iyesha geeth abbas, nci folkestone, pad.ma, shaina anand, the country of the blind
Posted in a gram of gujarat, NEWindia, the literary, the political, the visual, visual art vanguard | Leave a Comment »
