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Museum of Contemporary Art – Palestine (CAMP):
The Museum of Contemporary Art (CAMP) was established to relate to one of the core Palestinian experiences – displacement; as well as to account for the growing collection of visual art that has been safeguarded by Al-Ma’mal over the past ten years. There was/is a need to create a lever for new opportunities, innovative thought, and dynamic multi-cultural activity within, and surrounding Palestinian art, culture, and environment. Our goal is to utilize CAMP to relate to Palestine and its rich and multifaceted textures (traditional/ historical backdrop embedded within contemporary ambitions), while encouraging and strengthening international communications as well. We believe that a contemporary art museum must be a flexible, living organism; an expanding space that will facilitate the realization of cultural projects, empower creative individuals of all nationalities, and avoid stagnation that might otherwise act negatively in like developments. For this reason, we envision CAMP’s essence not solely as a physical place (for that would undermine our working philosophy and limit creative potential), but as an authentic, accessible, and fluid entity, a nomadic site where dialogue, growth, and resourceful experimentation are encouraged.
Our project involves the biennial 'nomadic' movement of CAMP, its cumulative art collection and 'portable' structure. Every year, CAMP will find a temporary 'home' under the auspices of a 'host museum.' The 'host museums' – located across the globe – will be invited to interact with CAMP's presence and to initiate projects and exhibitions.
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Peter Riedlinger
Us /Them
Peter Riedlinger
Born in Loeffingen in the Black Forest, Germany in 1966. Studied at The School of Art & Design, Zurich, Switzerland, and at The Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig Germany.
Participated in numerous exhibitions and festivals in Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia, including a solo exhibition in Gallery Anadiel, Jerusalem. In 2007, he participated in "Photophobia" at The National Center for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad Art Gallery; L'exposition collective, Cite Internationale des Arts, in Paris in 2004. In 1999 in conjunction with his individual exhibition at the Kunstverein, Leipzig, his picture series, Hero city/Heldenstadt was published in book form.
Riedlinger was an active participant of Al-Ma’mal’s initiatives, residing in Jerusalem for several months between 2000 and 2001, contributing as a photography instructor in the workshop program, as well as participating in the artist-in-residence program. For us/them, the photography project that Riedlinger initiated during his time in Jerusalem, the young German photographer focused his interests on themes within the immediate environment, exploring the fragmented view that separates objects from their usual context. The stillness of palm trees reflecting in the blue of a swimming pool, the sky captured at midday, and an empty football field were just some examples of the images Riedlinger focused his camera on, revealing a tranquil yet distant motive. The concept he analyzes in us/them should be understood in its wider sense as the tension between two components of reality, not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but also between new and old, traditional and modern and even between reality and photography. It was the uniqueness of the country he sought to explore and portray, attempting to obtain visual fragments of a most delicate nature in a harsh and divided place.
Riedlinger’s talent lies not in insisting on inspecting perceived realities too closely. He thus captures the momentariness of situations without alluding to the transitory character of the snapshot. Seemingly immaterial details attain a symbolic or emblem-like aura. One is inclined to look at his photographs as an experiment in a new simplicity, where Riedlinger looks at objects without naiveté and with the eye of one fully aware of the impact that such images can have.
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