This talk was given in the framework of Liminal Spaces, Leipzig, on day 3 of the conference/exhibition; Barbara Steiner speaks about the role of The Leipzig Gallery for Contemporary Art.  This particular forum is called Crisis and Potentials of Institutions (The Middle East, Near East and Europe) with Moderator: Francis McKee.

Liminal Spaces is an international art project which aims at refuting the realities of occupation and its dynamics by examining notions of urban spaces, borders, mental and physical segregation, cultural territories and the possibilities of art within political frameworks. In light of the ever-growing hardship endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation; persistent loss of land, deprivation of freedom of mobility, as well as basic political and civil rights, this international cooperative project takes as its starting point the spatial borders that characterize Israel’s colonial project. Frontier cities like Jerusalem have become laboratories of an urbanism of radical ethnic segregation. Since the Second Intifada and Israel’s unilateral construction of the Wall, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice at the Hague, this situation has intensified to an alarming degree and the urban fabric has disintegrated into a spatial and mental archipelago. This radical separation affects Palestinians in diverse ways; they suffer the loss of basic freedoms, restrictions on travel and severe surveillance that endanger the future of their society.

Project curators, Galit Eilat, Eyal Danon, Reem Fadda, and Philipp Misselwitz, say, "During the course of this project, we have had to repeatedly reiterate and clarify its aim; we underscored the fact that it is not an attempt at normalisation, and that it is not meant to offer a model for peaceful coexistence between two equal partners. Rather, we reasserted that the main aim of the project was to serve as a platform of resistance and vocal opposition to the ongoing Israeli occupation, and to its direct effects on the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. This project operates in a context in which the distinctions between art and politics are blurred. We wish to examine the possible role of art as a catalyst for political and social change and to trigger a more active form of political engagement within the art world. We feel that the clear political stance of the participants and the curators is the basis for the network that Liminal Spaces has generated."

To read more, visit the project’s website http://liminalspaces.org

Catalogue No. 1088
File: Liminal Spaces