People ASIAN ART 7


Maybe, there are between four and six collectors, you can count them on the fingers of two hands, but no more.


AAN: Has the situation changed for you in terms of funding and exposure now that there is a new president in the United States? JP: No. Actually, there is not that kind of direct impact, or influence on our work, coming from the United States. It is really negligible in terms of impact.


AAN: You have previously been involved with the Palestinian Museum where you held the position of director from 2012 until 2015. What is the present status of the museum? JP: I have no connection with the museum anymore. Personally, I have not been there and I do not know what is going on. As far as I know, from what people who were there have told me, it still has not produced anything, or presented anything yet.


AAN: How do you view a different initiative that has been launched jointly by Jack Lang, director of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and Elias Sanbar, the Palestinian Ambassador to UNESCO for a Palestinian Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art? Te collection is presently based on donations from artists from abroad, similarly to the Museum of Exile that was launched at the time in South Africa against apartheid. Do you view this as an initiative with potential or that is not leading anywhere and bound to fail? JP: We have seen this happen a couple of times in the history of Palestine and the issue here is that on one hand it is really an amazing gesture on the part of the artists who are willing to donate works for Palestine. It keeps the name of Palestine and the problems it is facing on the table and everybody can still pay attention to what is happening here in spite of the overwhelming events that are taking place around us, particularly in Syria and Iraq. On that front, it is highly commendable, but as you know, when it comes to collections in museums, these things need a certain direction and a certain vision to help put things together. Tis is essential in order to avoid the fact that you eventually end up with a disparate collection of artworks that is not connected to one another or that cannot hold a certain narrative and where sometimes especially if you depend on donations – you may get good work, but sometimes you may not get such good work. Tat makes the whole thing not so well balanced.


AAN: Tere is also another recent initiative that has received extensive coverage in the media: Bansky’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem located steps from the wall separating Israel from the Palestinian West Bank. What was the local community’s reaction? JP: It is almost the same position as vis-à-vis the collection of the museum. On one hand, it is a very important gesture and highly commendable on the part of Bansky and his colleagues to raise attention and bring people here. I know Bansky has a wide international following. Consequently, people from Sri Lanka to Nicaragua have paid attention to his project and that is really good and important. Palestine in the situation we are in needs that and needs to be always brought back to the discussion and it cannot just


be allowed for this conflict to drag on forever. It has been dragging and dragging for a hundred years as if there were no end in sight. Tat is really catastrophic especially for the Palestinian population because the younger generation, in particular, has no hope in being here or making the effort to develop, study and do something better. It is a catastrophe. Yet, on the other hand, what I read from the promotion, the PR and the publication that was produced by the project, it somehow flattens the perspective, ie, it is equated between the people who are denied access, denied commuting from one place to another, denied meeting the uproot families who are separated because of the borders and the checkpoints with Israelis who have no connections to these borders, walls and those aggressive and discriminatory laws that are imposed on the Palestinians.


AAN: You just mentioned a key word which is hope. With all the complications and difficulties, do the artists nevertheless keep a certain optimism ? JP: Artists in general are creative people and they are always looking for new and interesting ways to look at things and to answer certain questions. By the nature of them choosing to be artists, I believe hope automatically comes with that. Yet, the general situation is depressing and relatively hopeless. Maybe the artists are among the most hopeful in a place where the majority of the population feels quite hopeless and helpless.


AAN: In 2012, you initiated the Qalandiya International, the Biennale taking place in Palestine. Is it ongoing? JP: Yes, it is ongoing. We are preparing for the 2018 edition, which will be the fourth edition, and it has been far more successful than I had anticipated in the beginning.


AAN: You have held a number of different positions in the art world. If you were to have unlimited funds, in your opinion, what would it take to put contemporary art from Palestine on the map? JP: Tere needs to be work on one level in terms of promoting the art itself by putting money and really taking the art to different places in the world, having people get involved with it like professionals, writers, critics, curators and other professionals in the field, getting some coverage in the media, doing a lot of work on making it visible and making it more accessible. At the same time, making resources available to the artists in terms of production money and exhibition funds, in terms of documentation and producing publications. Tere needs to be a lot of work on these two fronts. Of course, I am mentioning two among many others because one does not forget for art to be properly supported and developed, you need a whole chain of different components and protagonists that have to come in play in order to support the arts. You need of course institutions, commercial galleries, art academies, magazines, the media, critics, curators, collectors, as well as the producers and the technicians. Tere is a whole value chain that needs to be considered when one thinks having the resources at hand to help support the arts.


AAN: Has the diaspora, so far, been helpful in promoting their cause? JP: I would say yes. Te diaspora has been supportive and helpful, but at the same time, they are very


Sacrifice (2014), Jack Persekian, inkjet on paper


conservative. Te diaspora is more interested in things that remind them of the past. Tey are more interested in the modern period, in the ‘classical’ artists who have defected right after the Nakba catastrophe and the problems that came up for Palestine. Tat is the main thing together with reinforcing the identity of Palestine by using certain symbolism provoking that. Tat is what the diaspora is interested in, focusing on that period and less so on contemporary art,


contemporary artists or younger artists.


AAN: Te 2017 Venice Biennale has already started. Te first and last participation of Palestine goes back to 2009. Whose initiative was it? JP: It was more a group of people: there was Salwa Mikdadi, the curator, together with the help and support of a few rich Palestinian people from the diaspora who could make it happen.


Flying Lady (2015), Jack + Issa, C-Print


AAN: Why did it not continue after 2009? JP: Te situation was not comparable to the works we started to talk about here at Al Ma’al and Anadiel Gallery, meaning you build an institution, you build the infrastructure, you build the know-how and work on developing that in order to grow with it. In Venice, it was an initiative with no infrastructure and no institution could support it and help it grow and continue. Tat is the problem with similar initiatives where it is only an initiative to do just one exhibition without thinking about how you can continue maintaining a presence in Venice. Of course, realising that the absence of government or a state for full or partial funding is also a big disadvantage to the whole project.


AAN: In your opinion, is it mainly a matter of funding, or are there also some political pressures involved? JP: Te financing is only a part of it. Tere needs to be a consensus effort between the Palestinian authority, the Ministry of Culture in Italy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A lot of political work needs to be done together with the setting up of a kind of institution that needs to facilitate all of that and make sure that there is a continuous work that is being done to achieve that.


AAN: You have been involved with the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. Is it a ministry that, in your opinion, is functioning properly? JP: It is very limited with very limited resources.


AAN: And your upcoming projects? JP: I am primarily focusing on the Al Ma’al Foundation’s programme, its exhibitions and residency programmes. I am also helping a few local artists who I am working with to put together projects that I am hoping to take and exhibit abroad. I hope that these projects can be presented accordingly in the proper institution or galleries. I am also trying to push the Anadiel Gallery on to the international market, trying to sign up with art fairs in order to gain more exposure.


SUMMER QUARTER 2017 ASIAN ART


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