The video presented here appears as a record of the exhibition «GAZA É AQUI», which was developed in the context of a Master's Degree of Arts, at the Superior School of Art and Design of Caldas da Rainha. My wish to materialize this project arose, by the end of 2016, from the outbreak of another conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
I followed with great attention and concern the events that took place, not so much because of the horrors associated with the armed conflicts, nor because of the injustice that the disparity between the two parties can cause, but because I stayed for three weeks in the West Bank in May 2014. This was the time needed to create affinities with people, places, landscapes, stories, aromas, flavours. In short, those were enough experiences that justified the feeling of being involved with these events.
The space chosen for the presentation of the project was the Bernardo Museum, in Caldas da Rainha. This choice is related to the typology of the building. The atrium functioned as an antechamber between public and private space. The tunnel played the role of a portal to another dimension outside our space/time and the patio of a private space.
The itinerary proposed to the viewer, departed from the public space, safe and organized, passing through the tunnel, an uncomfortable and obscure extension, ending in a space of intimate character. Each of these three nuclei was inhabited by objects and events materialized in sounds, installations and videos, including a West Bank photo album and two documentaries about the conflict. This display was aimed at providing the spectator with an immersive and condensed experience of the environment that can be lived in the context of armed conflict.
What if Gaza were here?
