"to what exiled country are you returning?"

Link to photographs: to what exiled country are you returning?

July 2008, Amman, Jordan, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts. Sculpture by Palestinian artist Ahmad Ka'nan, entitled "to what exiled country are you returning?" The keys represent the homes that Palestinians have been forced to abandon.

I was inspired to publish my photos after seeing an album by my friend Marwa Yousef's entitled AMRIK (find here). Her photos where taken in Ramallah Cultural Palace. Mine, featuring the same exhibit, where taken in Santiago Chile. AMRIK focuses on the Arab presence in America (non-Anglo). As far as I know this show has been exhibited in Palestine, Egypt, Brazil and Chile.

Santiago has its own modest version of the Alahambra

I have included other photographs taken about 3 month ago when I visited the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, Jordan. The boat (1st image above) is a very powerful and moving sculpture by Ahmad Ka'nan, Palestinian artist entitled "to what exiled country are you returning?"

I have borrowed Ahamad Ka'nan's title of his sculpture for this post. To me the title conveys the permanent unresolved state of migration. It is not only physical, it does not belong to a place it is a different way of relating to the surroundings, for ever carried by those who for one reason or another had to leave their home country. It was immensely moving to see these two exhibitions. On both occasions and from different perspectives the migratory condition conveys the uncertainty of the past, the present and the future and the unshakable sense of loss and often also of hope.

Note: in these two occasions taking photographs was allowed.

Location: Santiago in Chile (November 2006) and Amman in Jordan (July 2008).

Find these photos: here (and sorry for the quality of some of them).

More about Arab and Middle Eastern migration to Chile: here