Tarek Al-GhousseinThe visualization of his Palestinian identity – he was born in Kuwait and has neve
Tarek Al-GhousseinThe visualization of his Palestinian identity – he was born in Kuwait and has never been to Palestine – has remained a constant in his work. But the new photographs are also existential metaphors. As Tarek Al-Ghoussein says, his series “Mounds” (completed at the end of 2003) is more intimate, already in format, than the large “Self-portraits” in the light boxes. Of course, one is immediately reminded of the fate of the Palestinians when one hears that the different types of “mounds” in the pictures represent “land” one is searching for, but is missing. But Tarek says he is dealing with something in a much broader sense – the impact of “barriers, land, and longing” on the awareness of identity.In this context, we came to talk about the barriers that Israel has erected on the borders to the Palestinian areas in West Jordan, while simultaneously annexing additional areas. Officially, references are to a “defense wall”, which implies that there is a need for protection from the people on the other side. Tarek Al-Ghoussein is interested in the manipulation of perspectives by means of linguistics and termini. He repeatedly demonstrates through his art how partial, stereotypical representations of Palestinians, Arabs, and the Islamic world appear in the western mass media. He knows them all too well, having himself lived for an extended period in the “West”. His frustration in this matter is one of the reasons for which he returned to the Middle East. - nafas -- source link
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