Words Under Occupation is a collaboration between poet, artist and performer Jepke Goudsmit and performance and video artist Markela Panegyres. The poem Words Under Occupation, written by Jepke, was transformed, in collaboration with Markela, into a new video artwork.
The work was created in response to Ramallah based Ashtar Theatre's global initiative Letters to Gaza which called on artists everywhere to make works in solidarity with Gaza.
Words Under Occupation is also part of a larger project of Cultural Intifada.
Duration: 15 minutes.
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Praise for Words Under Occupation:
Fayez El-Hasani, head of the Fine Arts Association in the Gaza Strip: "The creative artwork, Words Under Occupation, delivers an important message: The suffering of Palestinians must stop. This dramatic work, filled with sadness and pain, was depicted by Markela Panegyres with refined emotion and honest expression by the poetry of Jepke Goudsmit.
"I hope everyone who watches this work would share it with their friends, as it provides an honest portrayal of the tragedy the Palestinian people are suffering amid the ongoing war against them."
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Words Under Occupation
genocide
‘vile’ is the word
that rises from the rot and pestilence of policy, the propagation of ‘evil’
obscene inversion of ‘live’
photograph
a family picture
grandparents, parents, their offspring, cousins, close relatives, all arranged together
inside make-shift shrouds
home
tent, school, playground
speak of trust, belonging, holiday, the joys of learning, friendship,laughter
hijacked and set on fire
courage
to keep your head
clean wells, build shelters, grow food, tend to the wounded, give birth, bury the dead
knowing you may be next
harvest
olive, mint, watermelon
communal bread and refreshment, fragrant with tradition and hospitality
uprooted, blocked, verboten
normality
in a bitter twist of fate
the blame shifts systemically from perpetrator to victim
an irony lost in relentless propaganda
press
messenger of truth
bearing witness in a raw, un-censored, un-fabricated, on-the-ground sort of way
free target of drone, bomb and sniper
history
burnt and buried alive
supplanted by false stories, false claims, myths, monuments to gods of greed and wrath
the epicenter of lies
numbered
without number
are the days, laws, stats, concerns, deals, contracts, treaties, conventions, resolutions, constitutions
rendered meaningless, endless, empty drivel
freedom fighter
born in the human heart
baptised in the fire of civil rights movements and international charters
declared terrorist by the oppressing master
convenience
since you undeniably exist
cultural appropriation, cheap labour and military experiments turn into profitable byproducts
collateral benefits
privacy
in a surveillance state?
loving intimacy between the land (water, air, stone) and its people (blood, breath, bone)
defies dehumanisation
sanctuary
betrayed by fake promises
hearth, grove, house of prayer, designated safe zone, none can offer refuge
just the heart
hamsa
how to stop violence
beware: ‘once evil’ hides within violence, ‘once evil’ reconstitutes violence, begets violence, dare
look evil in the eye
hand
of a child
pink, soft, adorable, sticks up from under rubble, grasping air, numb
last gasp of life
art
rites of resistance
poems on walls, acts in court yards, calligraphy on kites, names printed on body parts
lines in the sand
hope
left naked at the core
in mothers, martyrs and the millions who renounce the might of empire
quietude for generations to restore