Galia Shapira

Destinations – A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogic Installation

The work is based on photographic images, stories, and testimonies that were collected for this project from 29 Israelis and Palestinians, in which they express their relationships with their shared homeland. The photographic images are projected onto the gallery walls while the text is played in Arabic, Hebrew, and English, as recorded by the project participants. The material for this exhibition emerged from a series of meetings that examined new horizons for encounters and collaboration, based on principles of equality and focused on the human aspects of the conflict and the need to find a way to live together. This work captures the cumulative insights of these deliberations. The exhibition aims to advance a dialogue on a human level of aspirations and suffering, deliberately resisting the language of legal or political negotiations. The personal voices and images attest to the experiences of longing for a home, for a refuge, of the pain of dislocation and loss, of memory and forgetfulness. The material for this work represents a dynamic archive that is being continuously assembled through expanding the range of participants. The exhibition viewers will be asked to contribute their own images and stories as well as to respond to a structured questionnaire. Finally, the material will be used in educational activities that will employ the arts in promoting collaborative youth encounters within peace education. The research and educational realms of the projects will be supported by the Center for Research on Peace Education, University of Haifa, in collaboration with other Israeli and Palestinian research and education institutes.
The work was exhibited between June 19 – July 19, 2003 in A Space Gallery in Toronto, Canada, as part of a multi-discipline gathering entitled Negotiations: From a Piece of Land to a Land of Peace.
Text: Dr. Haggai Kupermintz, The Center for Research on Peace Education, University of Haifa

With the participation of: Ghada Elturk, Aref Nammari, Dr. Haggai Kupermintz, Prof. Phil Shane
This exhibition is part of collaborative project that engages Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists, academicians, and activists.