The Incidental Insurgents, Part 2: Unforgiving Years, Chapter 4, 2014
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Still: Courtesy the artists | Carroll / Fletcher, London
Collection
Single-channel video installation, color, sound
6 min 20 sec
In their three-part work, The Incidental Insurgents, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme investigate the intricate network of histories, geographies and revolutionary moments that write, and rewrite, the narratives of resistance. The three works in the series are each made up of an audiovisual work within a larger installation.
In Part 2 of the The Incidental Insurgents series, aptly titled Unforgiving Years, the artists continue to trace the histories of the “bandits”: Victor Serge and the Bonnot Gang in Paris, Abu Jilda in Palestine, Roberto Bolaño’s Visceral Realist poets, and the artist themselves in present-day Palestine. Through the real and fictional histories, conflicting narratives between historical and contemporary accounts of the bandit’s unfulfilled or defeated gestures are uncovered. While histories speak of heroes, the men themselves were almost incidental figures in revolutions, searching for a way to give form to their impulse for more radical action. This in-depth examination urged the artists to explore their own relationship to revolution, historical momentum, and their existence in a constant state of both hope and despair about the political decline of Palestine – and how their own actions might be presented in future accounts.
In their practice the duo undertakes a rigorous form of research, which includes visiting the locations, interviews, and discussions with academics, as well as the intensive examination of historical documents, maps, photographs, films, and music from their area of focus. Drawing on this information, they weave between real and potential narratives to achieve a dramatic exploration of what might have been. – Alicia Reuter
*1983 in Nicosia, Cyprus and Boston, USA | Living and working in Ramallah, Palestine and New York, USA
6 min 20 sec
In their three-part work, The Incidental Insurgents, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme investigate the intricate network of histories, geographies and revolutionary moments that write, and rewrite, the narratives of resistance. The three works in the series are each made up of an audiovisual work within a larger installation.
In Part 2 of the The Incidental Insurgents series, aptly titled Unforgiving Years, the artists continue to trace the histories of the “bandits”: Victor Serge and the Bonnot Gang in Paris, Abu Jilda in Palestine, Roberto Bolaño’s Visceral Realist poets, and the artist themselves in present-day Palestine. Through the real and fictional histories, conflicting narratives between historical and contemporary accounts of the bandit’s unfulfilled or defeated gestures are uncovered. While histories speak of heroes, the men themselves were almost incidental figures in revolutions, searching for a way to give form to their impulse for more radical action. This in-depth examination urged the artists to explore their own relationship to revolution, historical momentum, and their existence in a constant state of both hope and despair about the political decline of Palestine – and how their own actions might be presented in future accounts.
In their practice the duo undertakes a rigorous form of research, which includes visiting the locations, interviews, and discussions with academics, as well as the intensive examination of historical documents, maps, photographs, films, and music from their area of focus. Drawing on this information, they weave between real and potential narratives to achieve a dramatic exploration of what might have been. – Alicia Reuter
*1983 in Nicosia, Cyprus and Boston, USA | Living and working in Ramallah, Palestine and New York, USA
Unforgiving Years (Extract from Part 2 of The Incidental Insurgents)
Lopud 2012 - Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme