Have a Pleasant Stay!

Artist Statement

One of the numerous places which has suffered a radical and dramatic transformation is between Ramallah and Jerusalem, where the checkpoint at Qalandia has become a frontier completely separating Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territories and villages.

Just entering that space is shocking and terrifying. A giant net of metal bars of all sizes and forms, thick heavy turnstiles - one after the other that make a huge and dense tissue of horizontal and vertical lines. An oppressive atmosphere where visibility is minimal and there seems to be no air to breathe.

Every time I pass this checkpoint and go through these turnstile doors I am psychologically and physically imprisoned, confined inside a reduced triangle without any possibility of movement and surrounded by iron bars and cameras. I am overwhelmed with strange and contradictory sensations that I have never experienced in any other place. I feel nervous, annoyed, afraid, insecure and suffocated. My heart rate increases and my brain is bombarded with uncontrollable questions. Will they permit me to pass? What if they impose a curfew? How can I get back home? Will I see my family on the other side? Constantly repeated throughout the day. Your perception of time is lost. Constant interrogation. Constant insecurity. Constant tiredness.

With Have a Pleasant Stay! I wanted to create a space for reflection and empathy, a visual and physical metaphor of the concept of suffocation and claustrophobia. I wanted reflect the feeling of Palestinians living inside their own land, but a land that has become a prison around them.


2009

Excerpted from Provisions, Book 1, the catalogue for the 9th Sharjah Biennial

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 9

Commissioned and produced by Sharjah Art Foundation