The 1st at Moderna: Emily Jacir

As Edward Said says in his essay on her work Where We Are From (2001-03), this is a matter which is infinitely more complicated for a Palestinian than for most other people. On her journeys to and from Palestine Emily Jacir always brings things for her relatives and friends who are unable to move as freely. Palestinians often have to abide by certain restrictions, such as curfews, and they often don’t have a passport. Many western artist, writers and other intellectuals in our time (and in the past) have lived for long periods in countries other than the one they were born in. But they have usually been able to do this with a feeling that their right to live wherever they wanted would not be questioned – a feeling that was probably rooted in colonial history. It is a right that cannot be taken for granted by everyone, especially not by Palestinians.

Where We Are From is a series of framed texts and photographs. The texts are answers to Emily Jacir’s question, “What can I do for you in Palestine, where I can go but you can’t?”. The photos are a form of visible evidence – one of the most traditional functions of photography – that the wish has been fulfilled. Most of those who have answered Emily Jacir’s question have asked her for very simple things that may appear trivial at first glance: “Go to Gaza and eat Sayadiyeh!” But it probably represents something vastly more important to the person who made the request. Tastes and smells, as we know, are strongly associated with memories. The requests also demonstrate the consequences of the political situation on everyday life. Consequences that are normally not acknowledged, but are nevertheless essential, and perhaps easier to relate to for those who have not experienced similar situations.

It has been said that the breakthrough of modernism entailed a strong shift of emphasis from content to form. Today, since the dawn of conceptual art, and with the frequently political tendency of art – the works of many artists display a renewed interest in the content itself. Emily Jacir majored in art, with a minor in political science. She works in a variety of media, and her choice of medium is, as with many other artists, dictated by what she wants to say. Like many conceptual works, Where We Are From consists of text and photography. However, as opposed to many older conceptual artworks, such as those of Joseph Kosuth, the technique is not chosen on the basis of philosophies of art or linguistics. Instead the main element is narrative technique. Text and photography are different forms of representation, both representing something that is absent. In Jacir’s works the artistic issue of representation gains several meanings. Jacir represents (depicts) what is absent from the lives of a few people and acts as their representative when she attempts to fulfil a few simple, and yet almost impossible, wishes.

Curator: Magnus af Petersens