Emily Jacir

(Ramallah, Palestine, 1970)
Emily Jacir lives in Austria, holds an American passport and was born in Palestine. In her works she tells about the reality she knows best, that of a person like herself, who continuously lives the experience of a perpetual journey, oriented toward a country that belongs more to memory than to actuality.
In ENTRY DENIED (a concert in Jerusalem), the musicians Marwan Abado, Peter Rosmanith and Franz Hautzinger are filmed while playing in an empty theater. The work is inspired by facts that actually occurred, related to the impossibility of holding a concert by the three musicians, originally planned for Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Upon his arrival at the Tel Aviv airport, shortly before the scheduled concert date, Abado, an Austrian citizen of Palestinian origin, was detained by the authorities, imprisoned for 24 hours and then flown back to Vienna. Although the musician had received official invitations and had his passport stamped with a visa issued by the Israeli State Department, the Israeli authorities prohibited him from entering the country for “security reasons.”
In accordance with the artist’s instructions, the video is not projected on a screen, but rather on a sort of temporary wall, the precariousness of which becomes an element of particular significance.

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