This whole time there were no land mines, 2017
Video installation comprising eight square monitors playing 1:1 videos (color, sound, loop) and audio speakers
The Golan Heights is an area annexed by Israel from Syria since the Six-Day War in 1967. Families and communities living on either side of the ceasefire line have been divided. In the Golan Heights there is a place called the “shouting valley,” where the topography creates an acoustic leak across the border. Here families gather to hear each other’s voices and wave to one another across the otherwise impervious divide. These are the sounds you hear. The images you see are from May 15, 2011, when protesters from all over the country gathered on the Syrian side of the valley for the anniversary of the Nakba. However, unlike the usual gatherings in this valley, this time the voice was not the only thing to cross the border. One hundred and fifty Palestinian protesters from Syria unexpectedly broke into Israeli territory, breaching the border for the first time since 1967. Four protesters were later killed by Israeli soldiers yet the majority managed to exercise, even if briefly, their right of return. This breach was captured by an anonymous source filming on their phone from the Israeli side, where communities in the surrounding area gathered in solidarity with the protestors. On this video, among the loud protest chants of those breaching the border we can just about make out the voices of the families of the shouting valley in the background. However they are not shouting their usual salutations. Like the border itself their voices became overpowered by the noise as they shout at the top of their lungs:
Enough
Enough
Stop
Stop
Hey. Stop
Enough
Enough
Enough
Stop. Enough
Stop. Enough
Enough
There are land mines
Stop
Stop
There are land mines. Land Mines
Land Mines. Land Mines
Enough
