21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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HUMAN BORDERS: Currently ongoing in Biel, Switzerland, a collective exhibition of photographs by 10 photographers from different parts of the world probes the question of troubled borders. The exhibition opened on 2 June and will continue for two months on the French-Swiss borders, after which it will tour Switzerland and eventually the rest of the world, with the emphasis on countries in which the photographs were taken. The opening of the exhibition was accompanied by the publication of a bilingual book in two editions: English-French and Italian-German, which includes five independently written essays and 10 photo essays comprising selections from each of the photographers' work. The exhibition concludes a long-term project initiated in 2000 by Pro Helvetia. Photographers were asked to visit their own troubled borders and document the strife. "A border," the book asserts, "is the interface between national sovereignty and personal freedom of movement. A border is also the dividing line between legality and illegality." Globalisation, the project seems to imply, has not prevented the poor from attempting to cross borders "in anticipation of a better life."
Gaza strip, Palestine. Children playing at the beach near Deir-al-Balah refugee camp. According to agreements, Palestinians are allowed to go 32 km into the sea. Israel only allows them 10 km, which is not enough for fishing. April 2000
Relevant among the contributions, which focus on a range of regions from Spain-Morocco to Tibet, is the work of the Palestinian photographer Randa Shaath, in which, just before the flare-up of the Intifada, she documented various aspects of life under siege, stretching the concept of borders to encompass divisions within towns and villages. Shaath, Al-Ahram Weekly's photographer, writes:
"When these photographs were taken, some 1,200 Israeli soldiers were guarding four hundred Israeli settlers in the old Arab city of Hebron, while some four thousand Palestinians lived unguarded and unarmed."
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