Palestinian architect and artist Dima Srouji explores the systematic displacement of Palestinian material culture and the liberation lab working to bring it home. For over a century, archaeology in Palestine has been weaponized, used as a tool for land grabs and the erasure of contemporary identity. From ancient glass vessels held in Western museums to human remains stored in university basements, the physical history of Palestine has been excavated, categorized, and displaced. Dima discusses her work in restitching these archives through art and collaboration. By working with multi-generational artisans like the Twam family, who still possess the ancient know-how of glassblowing, she creates ghost objects that challenge the colonial narrative of a dead past.
00:00 Introduction
01:32 Architectural Education & the Spiritual Connection to the Land
07:30 The Liberation Lab
09:47 Ghost Objects: Restitching Material Heritage Through Palestinian Glass
12:28 The History of Colonial Archaeological Excavations
15:44 Challenging Museum Narratives
18:03 The Twam Family Workshop: Four Generations of Glassblowing in Jaba
21:28 Ancient History of Levantine Glass Fabrication
25:50 The Weaponization of Archaeology
29:47 Sebastia vs. the City of David
32:32 Saving Sebastia: Experimental Film as an Exercise in Creative Diplomacy
36:01 Reclaiming the Displaced Material Culture of Gaza
39:34 Excavated Human Remains
42:36 Rituals of Return
44:01 The Restorative Power of Broken Glass
48:43 Rememberment: A Form of Restitution
50:24 The Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund
56:00 Future Projects and the Cosmic Mediterranean
Dima is an architect, artist, and researcher interested in the ground, objects, displacement, restitution, forgeries, and living archives. Dima leads the MA City Design studio focused on archaeological sites in Palestine as sites of urban struggle. Her practice explores the power of the ground, its strata, and its artefacts in revealing silenced narratives and embedded intergenerational memories. Dima holds an M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture and a B. Arch (Hons) from Kingston School of Art. She founded Hollow Forms, a glass blowing project with the Twam family in Jaba’, Palestine in 2016. She will be Jameel Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2022.
Connect with Dima Srouji 👉 https://instagram.com/dimasrouji
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Mikey Muhanna 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mikey_mu/?hl=en-gb
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