Israel/Palestine 2006-2007

Curator: Nirith Nelson

Wooden structure with sign, printed material and four DVDs.
Publication: Real Estate.
Free printed material, unlimited copies, 20 pages. Black and white, 23.5 x 33.2 cm.
4 DVD: Real Estate #1. 23’41’’, Real Estate #2. 8’01’’, Real Estate #3. 10’37’’, Real Estate #4. 5’45’.
Tel Aviv Artists’ Studio, Tel Aviv, May 2007 and La Capella, Barcelona, September 2007. Espai Zero1, Museu de la Garrotxa, Olot, December 2008. Produced by JCVA and ICUB.

The Real Estate project (2006–07) is the result of a long process of immersion in the context of Israel and Palestine. It began in early 2006, when the Jerusalem Center for the Visual Arts invited Dom.nec to a residency in Jerusalem and continued with a series of extended visits until 2007.

This installation simulates an estate agent’s and shows a range of materials (photographs, videos, interviews, freesheet publications, etc.) as a visual register of the complex and problematic relationship between territory and habitat. The installation reveals the way in which architecture and urbanism form part of a war strategy of the State of Israel in the occupation of Palestine and how they are, in fact, one of the most effective methods of domination.

In the Friday editions of Israel’s written press, there is usually a supplement with real estate advertisements, in which apartments and suburban homes are offered at low prices. It is only after careful reading that one discovers that these houses are often situated in occupied Palestinian territory, and are in fact illegal according to international treaties.

This project provides evidence of the colonial relationship of ‘property’ that the State of Israel and part of Israeli society have towards the occupied Palestinian territories.

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