Reclaimed Territories

This series of frames depicts images from the group of images received by Qattan. Each frame includes a wooden frame combined with a mat (passe-partout), the passe-partout is hand-cut and covers parts of the images where buildings once stood. We are left with only the landscape visible, without any buildings, structures, or human interventions.

This act of erasure echoes the curatorial approach in the exhibition, and moves one step forward to continue the act of erasure. The flat mat pieces, which usually serve as additional decoration and perform several other more practical functions, such as separating the artwork from the glass, in these works serve to isolate the buildings from the landscape by covering them. By so doing, they turn the materials and actions from the context of preservation and archiving to actions of erasure, deletion and conquest.