Return of
the Soul - the Nakbah Project, is a moving artwork comprised of thousands
of small wax figures creating an illussion of exodus. In total the project has
produced over 6,000 figures, 3,000 have just been exhibited in Al Hoash Gallery
in East Jerusalem and were created by Palestinians of all ages but mostly youths
from camps in the West bank, Al - Amari and Qalandia (Ramallah) and the Doha
Centre, Bethlehem as well as young professional artists from Jerusalem. The 3046 wax and wire figures on exhibit at Patriothall Gallery in Edinburgh were produced primarily by young artists and crafts people across three camps in Lebanon, Beddawi, Burj al-Barajneh and El Buss under the aupices of Al-Jana (The Arab Resource Centre for Popular Arts), and Shams Theatre Association.
Left <<<: Artist Jane Frere organises the unpacking
of the bubble wrapped figuresRight >>>: Tessa unravels some of the 6092 wires (two for each figure).
Volunteers from Edinburgh have been helping Jane and exhibition managers with the huge logistical task of preparing the installation for the exhibition. 3046 figures, ranging in size from around 4cm to 31cm arrived carefully bubble-wrapped in crates. Each figure had to be hung on nylon wires to represent the state of limbo in which the Palestinian people have found themselves since the mass Exodus in May 1948, known as the Nakbah.
The figures had to be carefully unwrapped, classified, counted, and (to Leith & North, bizarrely) arranged in a series of plastic bags, which had been provided by Scotmid. The bags of figures were arranged in the Scotmid bags, in a winding procession, up the full length of a corridor, and round the room where they were unpacked. The bags with the smallest 4cm figures started the line which led up through all the sizes to the largest 31cm sized figures.
See a short film of the art work in Jerusalem, and hear Jane's comments >>>
Left <<<:Some of the larger figures
in their Scotmid bag Right >>>: Robyn Hambrook, assistant project manager.
The figures have been made by Palestinian young people (read more on the next page). Each figure is carrying something - sometimes a basket, sometimes another person - anything they could take as they had to flee their homeland.The figures have little hooks in their shoulders, so that they can be tied to the nylon wires, which suspend them. Leith & North's reporter worked with the figures, but was also aware that the mesh from which they hang, had to be carefully measured and cut too.
The wax figures ranged in size from 4cm all the way up to
31cm, and had to be hung in rippling waves, creating a sense of space, depth,
and distance from near to far. Each figure hangs on two hooked nylon wires -
each a different length, so that different sized figures can be seen in rows,
descending from high, in the distance, to low in the foreground. These wires
had to be unstuck from their wrapping and laid out, so that each figure could
then be tied to its wires, and carried up the scaffolding and hung in limbo.A lot of painstaking care has gone into this event - from the making of the figures, to their careful transport and unwrapping, to the work of volunteers to sort them, to the creation of the structure to hang the figures to the final tricky display of each figure in lonely limbo.
Volunteers undertook all this work as a small price to pay, to commemorate the 60 years of continuing suffering of the displaced Palestinian people, and to give visitors to Edinburgh this summer a chance to reflect on what is still happening in the Middle East today.
Patriothall Gallery web site >>>
Return of the Soul web site >>>
A nightmare of shattered lives: The Scotsman, July 24th>>>
Return of the Soul: The Nakbah Project (continued) >>>
