practices of representation in conflict areas: in front of and behind the camera
Lecture by Mich'ael Zupraner, Ian artist and human rights activist from Israel, within the frame of the research project MemScreen (residencies).
"My lecture will discuss how the proliferation of video technology in conflict areas challenges both the concepts of documentarian and documentation. I will discuss these issues through the prism of my work and experiences in the divided city of Hebron, West Bank - arguably the most violent, volatile, and videotaped point of friction in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Using my own footage as well as that collected from various local home movie archives, I will offer observations on how relentless media coverage (and in turn, local consumption) have influenced Hebron residents' own practices both in front of and behind the camera - especially once these documentary subjects became 'documentary practitioners' in their own right".
Mich'ael Zupraner - born 1981, Zupraner is an Israeli artist. He is a graduate of the Visual and Environmental Studies program at Harvard University and a founder of the HEB2.TV video project and media centre in Hebron, West Bank. He is currently a researcher in the Design department at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Netherlands and a Mortimer Hays-Brandeis Fellow for 2011-2012.
