Thaer Mitwalli

Lives and works in Jerusalem, Israel

Artist statement

I make work about who is left to tell a story, and what happens to a memory that has to survive in a place under permanent watch. In lost memory, a fighter who spent most of his life in prison says he had to leave his memories behind on the walls of that room. Release is not the end of the sentence. In Diary I gave up sound, because under occupation every word carries a charge — every dream, every sip of coffee — and the film keeps writing in Arabic anyway. The Birth was made when Corona emptied the world and people stopped being seen and started being counted; it opens on Damascus Gate, lit and empty. The Rival gives Kanafani's order — don't die before becoming a rival — to a body that is back on the floor before the line arrives. I work in Jerusalem, under occupation, where people learn to be several selves at once. I want video in which withheld sound and held time are arguments, not style, on ground Mona Hatoum and Bill Viola opened. I am not joining that conversation as an equal; I am bringing what I have seen into it.

Artwork