Yazid Anani: Contesting the Role of Art in the Public Realm

view of apartment blocks in Ramallah, Palestine

Yazid Anani discusses the role of Art in the public realm of Palestine and his experience during the working of the exhibition 'Ramallah - the fairest of them all?' curated in collaboration with palestinian artist Vera Tamari.  The exhibition investigated and explored social and cultural transformation of Ramallah. What does it mean to live in Palestine as a collectivity? What is the common? How does the City tranform and how do we create the condition for a re-reading of 'the common'?  Looking at the details of what the society has become, how it is changing, how Neoliberalism reached Palestine and its capital, Ramallah, Yazid Anani addresses the problem of the destruction of Palestinian heritage, the death of the political project of liberation from the colonization and the shock of the growing new neoliberal cities in Palestine.

Projection, -Abi Fawk El Shajara- film posters in Al-Manara. Courtesy of Inass Yassin, 2010