| |
|
'Soup Over Bethlehem' (2006) by Larissa Sansour, depicts an ordinary Palestinian family, Sansour's own, around a dinner table on a rooftop overlooking the West Bank city of Bethlehem. What starts as a culinary discussion about the national dish mloukhieh being served from a soup bowl soon evolves into a personal and engaging conversation about politics - thereby emphasizing the symbiosis of food and politics so indicative of the Palestinian experience.
The sheer flow and integrity of the dialogue poses questions as to the staged nature of what easily passes for unedited. The handheld cameras and the intimate sounds of cutlery against china support the illusion of a one to one relation between video and reality. Yet, by being composed of multiple unrelated fragments of dialogue, 'Soup Over Bethlehem' actually marks a break-away from the very narrative it feigns.
Rather than offering a portrait of a national identity as an invitation to renegotiate stereotypes, 'Soup Over Bethlehem' presents a stereotype already renegotiated. The Arabic spoken around the dinner table is interrupted by English, and family members hold a variety of international passports, jobs and academic degrees. The diasporic traits present in every Palestinian family history lends a globalized quality even to life under the restraints of occupation. In turn, the mloukhieh in the soup bowl represents the shared national heritage - a single constant amid nothing but fluctuation. And the meal itself becomes a gastronomic anchoring of a Palestinian identity in eternal flux.
Larissa Sansour was born in 1973 in Jerusalem, studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York, and earned her MA from New York University. Sansour's work has been exhibited worldwide in galleries, museums and film festivals, including Tate Modern, London and the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Her work was shown in last year's Third Guangzhou Triennial in China, the Contemporary Art Biennale in Nîmes, France and the Busan Biennale in South Korea. Her latest film "A Space Exodus" was nominated for the Muhr Awards for short film at the Dubai International Film Festival. Her work will feature in the 11th International Istanbul Biennial in September 2009.
Still from 'Soup Over Bethlehem (Mloukhieh)', 2006
Video, 9 minutes 30 seconds
|
|
| |
|
