Jumana Manna
Foragers (working title)2019
These photographs were taken during Manna’s residency at Dar Jacir (February-March 2019). They are the first step towards a larger film project about foraging practices in Palestine, primarily around plants that have been banned by the Israeli Nature Reserve Authorities such as ‘akoub and za’tar, and the “war” waged by the Nature Patrollers on the Palestinians who despite the ban, continue picking these plants. Still in its beginning phases, this film is ultimately concerned with questions of what is made to go extinct and what gets to live on, about who decides on these matters and the options that remain for those who don’t.
Jumana Manna, Foragers (working title), 2019, Photo by Aline Khoury
Image captions (left to right):
i. Fertility idols on display in the contested “Finds Gone Astray” exhibit, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem. Featuring a selection of Near East artifacts confiscated by Israeli authorities from “illegal looters” in the West Bank. The exhibition text reproduces a longstanding narrative that Jewish-Israelis protect the land and its past, while the Arabs destroy it.
ii. Alien faced scarecrow at the entrance of the Abu Jabal family’s land. Golan Heights.
iii. A sack full of foraged ‘akoub in the Golan Heights.
iv. Olive tree trunk, near a patch of wild za’atar in the Palestinian village of Suba. Situated West of Jerusalem, it was destroyed in 1948 and established soon after by the Jewish army as Kibbutz Tzova.
Part of the Inaugural Residency curated by Emily Jacir
Supported by the A. M. Qattan Foundation through the “Visual Arts: A Flourishing Field” project funded by Sweden.