Crossing Surda, 2002
Video installation, 31'
Emily Jacir’s comings and goings, camera in hand, over a period of eight days as she tries to cross the Israeli-Palestine border, travelling from Surda to Birzeit University, and the way in which the soldiers throw her passport into the mud convey a telling view of the kind of difficulties thousands of people have to endure to cross the Israeli army’s checkpoints. As if in a filmed diary, the artist becomes a kind of index, registry or, better still, a tool to raise awareness about the day-to-day reality of the Palestinian people.
Courtesy: the artist and Anthony Reynolds Gallery