Duchifat

Mini-DV, 10" (colour/sound)

UK / Israel / Palestine 2009

Aware of the impossibility of images to depict conflict without perpetuating the stereotypical representations associated with the region, Duchifat  is a film where the main character can never be seen yet occasionally heard. Presenting us with a bare disjointed landscape, each frame moves across the horizon like a bird migrating in opposite directions in a continuous 360 degree camera pan shot from the point of view of the roof top of King Hussein of Jordan’s abandoned summer palace in East Jerusalem. Extending the tradition of stereoscopic photographs from the 1840s – the film depicted two views of the same thing from different vantage points, to address how specific once shared cultural symbols are co-opted, re-branded and ultimately turned into tools for colonisation.

The title refers the Hebrew word for Hoopoe. This bird plays an important role in Rabbinic and Qur’anic literature alike (Hudhud, its Arabic name) as the messenger between King Salomon and Queen Sheba (Balqis). In May 2008, around the time this work was shot, the Duchifat acquired new symbolic meaning, when to commemorate the 60th anniversary of its independence, the state of Israel named it its national bird.

This work, was developed during a residency at the Digital Art Lab (Tel-Aviv) as part of Liminal Spaces (Ramallah).

It premiered at MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main) in a unique screening which happened during museum closing hours to further empathise the politics of visibility.