Museum on the Seam

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Museum on the Seam
MuseumontheSeam7851.JPG
Museum on the Seam
Established1999
Location Jerusalem
Type Art and politics
Website www.mots.org.il

Museum on the Seam is a socio-political contemporary art museum located on the border between West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. [1]

Contents

About the museum

Founded in 1999, Museum on the Seam is housed in a neo-classical building designed by Andoni Baramki, a Palestinian Arab architect who built it as a family residence. [2] The property was appropriated by Israel after 1948. According to the museum website, the museum focuses on "controversial social issues for public discussion,” with exhibitions on social issues like the right to protest, the decline of Western hegemony, and state/private home relationships. [3]

Museum on the Seam has been cited by The New York Times as one of the world's 29 cultural 'one must-see-before-I-die destinations.' [4] [5] According to its public presentations, it brings social and moral change in face of a complex and conflict-ridden reality.

The museum was established by Raphie Etgar. It has been supported for decades by the Holtzbrink Family Foundation. [4] through the Jerusalem Foundation. Leading contemporary artists have shown their work at this museum, including Anselm Kiefer, Bruce Nauman, Bill Viola, Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Wim Wenders, Thomas Hirschhorn, Gilbert & George, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Douglas Gordon, William Kentridge, Santiago Sierra, Alfredo Jaar, Edward Burtynsky, Yael Bartana, Michal Rovner, Dani Karavan, Moshe Gershuni, Micha Ullman, Joshua Neustein, Larry Abramson, Sigalit Landau, Tsibi Geva, Menashe Kadishman, Miki Kratsman, Gilad Ophir, Michal Na'aman and many others. [6]

History of the building

Baramki family home

The house was built to serve as his home by the Christian Arab architect Andoni Baramki in 1932, on one dunam of property purchased from the Turjman family. [2] The Baramki family was forced to flee as refugees, after a stray bullet almost killed the architect's wife while she was sitting in her living room, [7] during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight [8] during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Israeli military outpost

The Baramki home was turned into an Israeli military outpost, called the "Tourjman Post" [9] situated on the border or no man's land between Israel and Jordan overlooking the Mandelbaum Gate, which served as the only passage between the two parts of the divided city at the time. [2] The finely wrought window arches were filled with concrete to form turrets. [9] During the battles of the 1967 War, the house suffered hits from shells and bullets which left their marks on the building and are apparent to this day. [9]

At war's end, the Baramkis crossed over with their keys and title-deeds but were rebuffed. [9] As was the case with the Turjmans, [2] all efforts by Andoni and his son Gabi Baramki, longtime President of Birzeit University in the West Bank, to return to and repossess the family home through recourse in Israeli courts, failed. The reasons were various: it was claimed initially that the site was required for military security, then that it was in a hazardous state, in need of substantial repairs, and finally that it fell under Israeli laws in a united Jerusalem, and, despite their presence, the family were classified as absentee property owners. [9] Gabi Baramki was allowed only one visit, [8] in 1999/ [10] 2000 [7] and regards it as "stolen property". [7]

Military museum

In 1981 the military outpost was renovated and renamed as the "Tourjman Post Museum" commemorating the reunification of the city. The museum mounted exhibits of the guns, mortars and other weapons used in its defense. [9]

Tolerance museum

In 1999 the building underwent change and a new permanent exhibition, calling for tolerance and mutual understating between people in the region, was displayed. On the day of its dedication, it was opened ostensibly as a site for 'peace, tolerance,... dialogue, understanding and coexistence'.[ citation needed ]

Socio-political art museum

Since 2005, the building serves as a home to the Museum on the Seam - a socio-political contemporary art museum dedicated to dialogue and mutual understanding.[ citation needed ]

Exhibitions

In 2000 Museum on the Seam produces, as an initiative by Raphie Etgar, the exhibition COEXISTANCE: [11] an international project that incorporates many leading poster designers from around the globe. The project was displayed in over 35 cities in different continents and called for mutual understanding between fellow nations and religions. Its global Journey was endorsed and supported by world leaders and thinkers.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ziva Haller Rubenstein, 'Beyond Borders: Innovating from Conflict to Community in Public Art Engagement in Holon, Israel,' The Journal of Museum Education , Fall 2012, Vol. 37, No. 3, Fall 2012), pp.57-68, p.61.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Salim Tamari, Ihsan Salih Turjman, Year of the Locust: A Soldier's Diary and the Erasure of Palestine's Ottoman Past, University of California Press, 2011 p.18.
  3. ↑ Akin Ajayi, 'Jerusalem Museum Straddles the Line Between Art and Politics,' Haaretz 23 November 2012
  4. 1 2 Tom Teicholz, 'Can Jerusalem's Exceptional 'Museum on The Seam' be saved?,' Forbes 22 December 2015.
  5. ↑ 'Where Art Thou?,' New York Times 17 May 2009
  6. ↑ "מוזיאון על התפר ירושלים | MUSEUM ON THE SEAM | Jerusalem".
  7. 1 2 3 Arthur Neslen,In Your Eyes a Sandstorm: Ways of Being Palestinian, University of California Press, 2011 p.238.
  8. 1 2 'Gabi Baramki: Intellectual and Defender of Education,' IMEU 29 January 29, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Thomas Aboud, ‘Present and Absent: Historical Invention, Ideology and the Politics of Place in Jerusalem,’ in Philipp Misselwitz, Tim Rieniets (eds.), City of Collision: Jerusalem and the Principles of Conflict Urbanism, Walter de Gruyter, 2006 pp.328-336.; 'Instances of stolen Palestinian properties transformed into Israeli sites are not uncommon. Many of these places have, over several decades, been remade and dedicated to the memory of Israeli achievement, sacrifice and longing. Arab properties -particularly homes- have proven critical in the Zionist "memory mill".'
  10. ↑ Menachem Klein, Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron, Oxford University Press, 2014 p.165.
  11. ↑ "Museum on the Seam | Coexistence |".

Further reading

Museum on the Seam- Interior Museum on the Seam- Interior.JPG
Museum on the Seam- Interior

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