Exploring the interrelation between place, society and memory in experimental film and video from Syria

How are memories and ideologies connected with spaces, physical or mental, urban or natural, and events that take place in these spaces? I am currently working on a number of projects that investigate some of these questions from different angles.

Taking the theory of ”lieu de mémoire”, or ”site of memory”, of the French historian Pierre Nora as my starting point, the program ”Sites of Memories” explores the significance of specific events and encounters for the individual. A ”lieu de mémoire” is an historical event of symbolic character with such serious consequences that it seems to exits not only in history, but in the present and future as well. It may or may not be connected to a specific physical location, important is its far-reaching consequences and its grasp on the person’s mind. It often plays an identity defining role, whether for an individual, or for an entire people. For the Palestinian people, the ”Nakba” of 1948 that saw a great number of people expelled from their homes and forced into exile is such an event. The consequences of this are the subject of ”Jerusalem HD” by Ammar Al-Beik. The film tells the tale of a young woman, one of the only survivors of a large Jerusalemite family. Living close to a cemetery with her grandmother, she seems to belong more to the world of the dead than of the living and her restless wanderings through the city seem an attempt to escape from the ghosts of the past and at the same time a desperate search for a place to rest. It is a sensitive parable for the exilic situation and of the entire Palestinian situation.

But whereas the term is normally used for events of historic importance, the films and videos of this program are located in an individual sphere. In taking this concept from the collective into the personal range of experience I want to investigate how life itineraries are influenced and changed by certain events, and how our personalities are affected by the memories of such events. It is an exploration of the character of an individual ”lieu de memoire”, of events with such an impact that they have changed the entire life of an individual, sometimes even forced him to place himself outside society’s ”normality” as in Hazem Alhamwi’s ”Stone Bird” and Reem Ghazzi’s ”Crack”. While these films tell individual stories, they also invite reflection on how rules dictated by the society can have disastrous effects on the people subjected to them.

“Sites of Memories” will be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, Denmark on February 5^th. More screenings are planned. For more information, please check:

http://www.zakharif.eu/pageID_9065328.html