IN RESIDENCE: SAFAA KHATEEB

Lives and works in Jerusalem and the Galilee village of Kfar Kanna. She has a Bachelor of Arts in photography from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (2016), and a Master's degree in cinema studies from the University of Haifa. Safaa participated in an Artistic Residency at La Cité international des arts in Paris France (2016), at UNIDEE - University of Ideas - Cittadellarte , Biella Italy (2018). She exhibited her "Baghdad Studio" project six times in 2016-2017: at Henri Frick Square, Saint Joss ten-Noode in Brussels; L'Uzine in Casablanca; Padeco Gallery in Ramallah; the French Institute in Nablus; Fattoush Gallery in Haifa; and Jeune Création Gallery in Paris. In 2016, she exhibited "Palestine World Cup 2034" at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and her "Dome of the Rock” video installation at Bezalel Gallery, both in Jerusalem. Safaa is the 2016 winner of the Palestine In & Out Festival Winner.
She is Also the winner of the 2018 first prize YAYA (Young Artist of the Year ) BY Qattan Foundation for Her Work The Braids Rebellion.


BRIEF Description of the project
 
As one of the Israeli occupation’s eviction and replacement practices that aim at wiping out the Palestinian presence and establishing itself atop its ruins, the Israeli authorities have for 70 years been seizing the architectural heritage of historic Palestine either through demolishing buildings and constructing new ones in their place, or through altering them to be used for other than their natural uses while maintaining their external shape; or simply confiscating and closing them down and disallowing entry to them. Such heritage sites or buildings would then be promoted as part of Israel’s culture through a systematic policy, utilizing various chronicling tools.
 
In its first phase, this project will focus on mosques and Islamic sanctuaries which were built by the end of the 19th century and were later converted by the occupation authorities into museums, art galleries and meeting places for Israeli artists.
 
 
Through this work, the artist seeks to understand the relationship between function and expression in architecture by examining how such relationship is at play in these buildings in their current form in which the expression (signification) contradicts with the basic function (symbolism) of the building. Then, the artist will attempt to formulate demands aiming at manipulating the current scene to restore the historically evidential value of these buildings and liberating them from their current unauthentic state inherited from years of occupation.
 
 
The artist utilizes various artistic patterns that are used in those buildings in their current function as critical artistic instruments that criticize art. But this project remains a modest artistic attempt sneaking on a stolen Tabo; an attempt that is fearful and repressed by the hegemony of the occupying power that is imposing itself and its art on the place.