Emily Jacir
EMILY JACIR, Crossing Surda, A record of going to and from work, 2002
2 channel video installation, 132 min projection, 32.45 min monitor
Courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York and the artist
Emily Jacir is an artist currently living and working between Brooklyn, New York and Ramallah, Palestine. Her work focuses on issues of movement (both forced and voluntary), dislocation, radical displacement and resistance. It also addresses the unconscious markers of borders (both real and imagined) between territories, places, countries and states. She employs a variety of media in her practice including film, video, photography, performance, installation and sculpture.
Emily Jacir has shown extensively throughout the world. The most recent solo exhibitions include: Kunstmuseum, St.Gallen, Switzerland and Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany 2007/08; Alberto Peola Arte Contemporanea, Torino, Italy, 2007; Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, UK 2005. Selected Group exhibitions include: 52nd Venice Biennale, Padiglione Italia, 2007; System Error, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Sienna, Italy, 2007; Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 2007; Altered, Stiched, and Gathered, P.S.1 MOMA, NY, 2006; 15th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, 2006; Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking, Museum of Modern Art, NY, 2006; Darat aL Funun in Amman, Jordan, 2006; 51st Venice Biennale, Always a little further, Arsenale, Italy, 2005; Belonging, Sharjah Biennial 7, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 2005. Jacir also conceived of and co-curated the first Palestine International Video Festival in 2002.
Crossing Surda (a record of going to and from work)
Since March 2001, the Ramallah-Birzeit Road has been disrupted by a checkpoint manned by Israeli soldiers, APCs and sometimes tanks. This road was the last remaining open road connecting Ramallah with Birzeit University and approximately thirty Palestinian villages.
On December 9th, 2002, I decided to record my daily walk to work across the Surda checkpoint to Birzeit University. When the Israeli Occupation Army saw me filming my feet with my video camera, they stopped me and asked for my I.D. I gave them my American passport, and they threw it in the mud. They told me that this was “Israel” and that it was a military zone and that no filming was allowed. They detained me at gunpoint in the winter rain next to their tank. After three hours, they confiscated my videotape and then released me. I watched the soldier slip my videotape into the pocket of his army pants. That night when I returned home, I cut a hole in my bag and put my video camera in the bag. I recorded my daily walk across Surda checkpoint, to and from work, for eight days.
All people including the disabled, elderly, and children must walk distances as far as two kilometers depending on the decisions of the Israeli army at any given time. When Israeli soldiers decide that there should be no movement on the road, they shoot live ammunition, tear gas, and sound bombs to disperse people from the checkpoint.
Emily Jacir
2002