Samira Badran
* 1954 Tripoli, Libya; Palestinian origin.
Have a Pleasant Stay! 2009
Multi-media Installation
Commissioned and produced by Sharjah Art Foundation
The artist about her work
One of the numerous places which has suffered a radical and dramatic transformation is between Ramallah and Jerusalem, where the checkpoint at Qalandia has become a frontier completely separating Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinian territories and villages.
Just entering that space is shocking and terrifying. A giant net of metal bars of all sizes and forms, thick heavy turnstiles - one after the other that make a huge and dense tissue of horizontal and vertical lines. An oppressive atmosphere where visibility is minimal and there seems to be no air to breathe.
Every time I pass this checkpoint and go through these turnstile doors I am psychologically and physically imprisoned, confined inside a reduced triangle without any possibility of movement and surrounded by iron bars and cameras. I am overwhelmed with strange and contradictory sensations that I have never experienced in any other place. I feel nervous, annoyed, afraid, insecure and suffocated. My heart rate increases and my brain is bombarded with uncontrollable questions. Will they permit me to pass? What if they impose a curfew? How can I get back home? Will I see my family on the other side? Constantly repeated throughout the day. Your perception of time is lost. Constant interrogation. Constant insecurity. Constant tiredness.
With Have a Pleasant Stay! I wanted to create a space for reflection and empathy, a visual and physical metaphor of the concept of suffocation and claustrophobia. I wanted reflect the feeling of Palestinians living inside their own land, but a land that has become a prison around them.
© Samira Badran. Excerpt from Provisions, Book 1, catalogue for the 9th Sharjah Biennial.
© Photos: Haupt & Binder, Universes in Universe
Part 2 of the photo tour through Sharjah Biennial 9, 19 March - 16 May 2009. Exhibition 'Provisions for the Future', Curator: Isabel Carlos, 58 participants.