Fridays
2018 | Damascus Gate, the old city, Jerusalem
The Fridays Project embarks on filmographic research around the site of the iconic and politically charged Damascus Gate, located on the northwest side of the old city.
The site’s several names pay tribute to its multiplicity: Damascus Gate in English, Sha’ar Shechem—the “Nablus Gate,” which refers to the biblical city—in Hebrew, and in Arabic “the Gate of victory” (باب النصر..) Each name suggests a different narrative and a different spatial reality.
In contemporary Jerusalem/Al-Quds, Damascus Gate has long been a site of violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and police.
Damascus gate, Jerusalem, 1967
Damascus Gate possesses several everyday functions and yields multiple layers of narrative, as is often the case in the sites I focus on. The Gate serves as a crowded marketplace but is also the main thoroughfare for Muslim pilgrims heading for the Friday Dhuhr prayer at 12:30 p.m. At sunset, orthodox Jews enter through the Gate too, as it provides the shortest route to the Wailing Wall, where many of the devout recite evening prayers to welcome the Sabbath.
By designating Fridays as the constraint for filming, I reflect on the contested political meanings, competing for geospatial realities, and overlapping transcendental experiences of the site.
2009-10 | Three Channel Demo of kept alive | 22 min 49 sec.loop > Edition of 7+2AP
The title NADAMAR is the reverse of Ramadan - the Muslim Religious holiday.
It is inspired by "Nacirema" the original 1965 anthropological paper by Mitchell Mines, describing Nacirema, an esoteric tribe living in North America.
By way of satire, the title is the reversal of America in order to distance readers from the fact that the North American group described actually corresponds to modern-day Americans of the mid-1950s.
Braverman Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
July 8-Oct 15. 21
Twilight Zones תוספת שבת
Curator Ami Barak
Haaretz: Heb
אמנות | ביקורת אמנות- תוספת שבת TWILIGHT ZONES
אבי פיטשון
נירה פרג מציגה: איך הופכים ערימת מחסומים משטרתיים לחוויה אמנותית נעלה
בתערוכתה החדשה ממשיכה פרג לחקור התנהגות אנושית בסיטואציות טעונות פוליטית.
מבט-העל שלה מחליף קלישאות עבשות של התנגדות והיא מספקת
הצעה משלהבת להמסת גבולות
PODCAST | Heb.
״לשם שמיים״
פודקאסט התרבות של בית הנסן - מרכז לעיצוב, מדיה וטכנולגיה 14/09/2021
רונן אידלמן ויונתן אמיר מארחים את נירה פרג
נירה פרג – לומדת מחסומים ומפרקת אותם״"
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wKx07fLfUxxE2PohCl9S7
The work NADAMAR was filmed on the last Friday of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan in 2018. On this particular day, the Israel Police and army guard the square and direct pilgrims using metal police barricades, at the end of the day, the police clear some of the barricades but leave the rest behind in array, eventually being dealt with by local civilians. NADAMAR is a makeshift duet between closing and opening- documenting the Israeli authorities’ blocking the square- and Palestinian civilians’ removing the barricades once the police have left. The result is a political choreography implied by the restriction of movement surrounding a particular merger of time-space, and the narratives attached to them.