The Green(er) Side of the Line
Alban Biaussat
In the Middle East, new political concepts, initiatives and slogans are plenty, supplementing each other month after month as the previous ones exhaust themselves. In this part of the world, enduring abstract thinking tends to lose vision. But there is one reference that has borne a sustained potential for visualization, if not for political vision: the Green Line. It is, it seems, well enshrined in people’s minds, whether they like it or not, as a valid political reference. Since the Oslo years of the 1990s, the 1967 “border” has become the orthodox reference for negotiating the final contours of an improbable “viable” Palestinian State – or, as some would probably prefer, of a viable continued Israeli occupation. Consistently represented in green on a series of geographical maps, it has emerged as the Green Line, attributing also political and legal in/correctness to a series of issues, such as Israeli settlements. Informed professionals and scholars would claim that the Green Line refers to the 1949 Rhodes armistice agreement between the newly established Israel and its neighboring Arab countries, reached in the absence of a peace treaty, not to the 1967 confrontation line showing the position of opposing forces before they went to war. Still, most people would probably assume that the 1949 line has remained the same till 1967. This overlooks the fact that the line has moved during this period. Its position has been continuously affected by the military and economic tactics of the parties and their desire to push the real “line” to the other side of the armistice “zone” where there was one, as is particularly the case in the Golan and near Latrun. By looking today only at the little short-cuts taken by the legally contested separation Wall and fence around or behind the Line, not to mention its obvious deep intrusions into the West Bank in some areas, one could easily believe there had already been past attempts at pushing the limits! As I became tempted, like so many others, by a career as a messiah in this Holy Land, I decided to make the Green Line appear. Photography would be my magic wand. Later, as I was considering the various shades of green for my 12-meter long ribbon and painted balls to be placed in the landscape as an artificial allusion to the line, some people questioned my initial choice. “This is not the green of the Green Line”, they said, as if they had actually seen it for real! Traveling during Spring and Summer along the line, it looks green indeed. Often, it also appears pale and blurred where there is a motorway interchange, a traffic intersection, inaccessible agricultural fields, empty hills or valleys, un-cleared minefields and military zones around the sections of wall and fence that make up the gently called "separation barrier". But its enduring political validity has been saturated by various, and sometimes contrary Israeli and Palestinian popular discourses. For all these reasons, the Line is blinding but it is also artificial and blurred. This is sometimes represented visually by the project, either by creating a movement effect, or by placing a virtual line in the landscape made of large green balls: the path between two points can indeed take an infinite number of courses, a straight line being only one of them. This project thus intends to instrumentalise the visual nature of this political concept and wants to be a gentle, yet absurd, kick in the big green eyes of the so-called solution of “two States living side by side in peace and security along the 1967 border.” By doing so, it intends to communicate, with a smile, a sense of absurdity when envisaging the likelihood of establishing borders in this landscape, if such a thing is possible at all. More interestingly, it is about showing the physical landscape of possible political separation, as was the case in the past, and about generating critical thinking and a healthy feeling of doubt to keep the door open to alternatives.
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174950 Field near the junction of roads 977-918 (Golan - North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174942 En Gev kibbutz, Sea of Galilee (Israel – North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174923 Mount Gilboa (Israel / West Bank - North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174929 The Fence “touches” the Green Line on Mont Gilboa (Israel / West Bank – North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174980 The Green(er) Side of the Line (2005-2006) - Moshave Merav Jilbun: Trees planted along the Green Line, near moshav Mevav and Jalbun (Israel / West Bank - North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174981 The Green(er) Side of the Line (2005-2006) - Um El Fahm: The Green Line on the Fence, Um El Fahm (Israel / West Bank - North West) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174931 “Welcome to hell”, the Fence seen from Salem village (Israel / West Bank - North) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174945 Butcher in Barta’a East (Israel / West Bank - North West) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITH SIGNED OR ORAL MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174952 Two brothers living on both sides of Barta’a, reunited in 1967 after 36 years of separation; until today only the Westerner has an Israeli ID (Israel / West Bank - North West) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITH SIGNED OR ORAL MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174979 The Green(er) Side of the Line (2005-2006) - The tunnel: Under highway 6, opposite Qalqilya (Israel / West Bank - North West) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174972 Building the Wall, near Rantis (Israel / West Bank - North West) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174964 Between Qatane and what is now Har Adar, a 200 meter large “hole” was created in the Green Line when joining the two maps of different scales used to draw the armistice line; a mistake corrected by the Fence (Israel / West Bank - Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174969 Salam and his father Tahar, shepherds from Qatane (Israel / West Bank - Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITH SIGNED OR ORAL MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174965 Qatane (Israel / West Bank – Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174938 Har Adar settlement, view of North Jerusalem (Israel / West Bank – Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174963 Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem central (Israel / West Bank – Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174960 New Gate, the Old City, Jerusalem central (Israel / West Bank - Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITHOUT MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174959 Har Homa, with Bethlehem in the background (Israel / West Bank - Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174966 Bathing settlers, between Har Gilo and South Jerusalem (Israel / West bank - Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITHOUT MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174943 Wadi Fukin, with Beitar Ilit in the background (Israel / West Bank - Center) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174947 White donkey in Battir; waiting for the Messiah? (Israel / West Bank – Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174977 The garden: Belal in his vegetable garden, Battir (Israel / West Bank – Centre) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITH SIGNED OR ORAL MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174940 Wandering Beduin shepherds, met in the Yaar Yatir forest (Israel / West Bank - South) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. WITH SIGNED OR ORAL MODEL/PROPERTY RELEASE. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174971 Judean desert (Israel / West Bank – South East) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174954 View of the Dead Sea from Metsokei Dragot (Israel / West Bank – South East) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174958 Abandoned military base north of the Dead Sea (West Bank - Centre East) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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Alban Biaussat / Picturetank BIA0174957 Drawing hope inside an abandoned military base north of the Dead Sea (West Bank – Centre East) STRICT EDITORIAL USAGE CONFORM TO CAPTION AND CONTEXT. Infos : +33(0)143 15 63 53. |
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