Israel / Palestine: Back to the Wall
Olivier Coret
In Visu
Olivier Coret found no shadows by the wall. I know that for I often saw him coming back to Jerusalem in the evening, on almost all of his four trips, with his face burnt by the sun or by gases sprayed by Israeli soldiers to break up the Palestinian demonstrators attempting to oppose the new border cutting them off from themselves, their families and their fields, moving them into enforced fortresses. Olivier spent hours there, whole days, evenings, weeks, here and there, along the boundaries of the West Bank. He knows the path by heart and is qualified to say: “All I see is a way of making the borders of the settlements official, annexing them to Israel, and enclosing the Palestinians in the insufferable enclave of the West Bank.” What he saw is exactly what he is showing. I believe it is very rare for a wall to have been photographed so much and in so short a period of time. And even when purported to have been built for the security of the Israeli people, there is nothing the least bit photogenic about it. Some photographers have focused on the graphic features, others have focused on its dominating presence, while Olivier has photographed it on a human scale. He chose a 6x6 or 6x7 format to show the effect of being hemmed in.
Preview
But inside these “cages”, characters have their positions, and there is never any exaggeration. The constraints imposed by the wall can be seen. And it is easy to understand that sometimes the only alternative is to leave. We can see how the heart of a village suddenly becomes the remotest point and the rot sets in. And we can recall that this decaying village was one of the cradles of civilization. Looking at these pictures, it is sad to realize that the idea of schoolchildren playing hooky, leaping over a wall, is no longer a romantic exercise. The children have been affected. They will not grow up like normal children. Olivier has also seen men die because they stood up to the barrier. Not many, but there will be others, and will more be needed? Coret says there is little resistance. The construction, as high as 8 meters in parts, crushes everything, and in particular the will of those who are forced to live with it. That is why we need photos, photographers and outside witnesses; people such as Olivier Coret. Olivier has the energy, patience and determination to show the violence of concrete and barbed wire, the absurdity of a human enterprise targeting human lives, the incongruity of the wall, a phenomenon defying comparison, yet it is bound to disappear, as have all similar ventures in the past. Olivier does not know when or how, or even if it will take years and lives. He would like to be there to see it come down. The International Court of Justice ruled that the wall being built is illegal.
Caroline Mangez
Commission: French Ministry of Culture and Communication, national center for visual arts [Centre National des Arts Plastiques]
