2024 - Against Abstraction, Arles 2024. July 1st-July 7th.

We are very pleased to announce the upcoming DoubleDummy activation entitled Against Abstraction by Palestinian artists Maen Hammad, Dina Salem, Sari Tarazi, and Ahmad Alaqra. “Against Abstraction” will be showcased in the framework of the opening week of the Rencontres d’Arles. Opening its doors on July 1st, 2024, and running until July 7th, 2024, it conveys a timeline of the ongoing genocide in Gaza using information shared via alternative messaging platforms like Telegram. The vernissage and the launch of the newsprint is scheduled for July 4, 2024 at 19:00. 

Against Abstraction ventures into themes of commodification and erasure of Palestinian suffering, and resistance. Interrogating how images emerging from Palestine are framed, interpreted, and more importantly, consumed, this year’s activation pivots around audiovisual material collected from popular Telegram channels. Known for their secure message encryption and relatively lenient content moderation policies, it relies on the alternative methods of news-sharing and the unfettered circulation of information stemming from these channels, which have been crucial in disseminating the reality from within Palestine. Using coding and AI tools, the artists analyzed large swathes of digital data to identify the most frequented words used on popular Telegram channels active in Gaza, every day since October 7, 2023. Corresponding to each of these words, they selected an image, a video or an audio note from each day of the genocide. The resulting timeline, collated from select excerpts from these channels, presents an insight into the last eight months in Gaza, distinct from mainstream social and corporate media discourse. It simultaneously gestures towards the different modes of erasure and sharp contradictions that have become more pronounced since October 7. The activation opens a portal into Palestine, raising questions about the institutional response to imperialist violence within the Western culture industry and the resulting patterns of consumption around the suffering of the oppressed. Eventually, it aims to confront Western liberal ideals, in their ultimate unmasking, as revealed through their lack of political engagement and solidarity with colonized subjects.

Monday to Friday, 12h : Guided tours at at DD studio.

The vernissage and the launch of the newsprint is scheduled for July 4th, 2024 at 19:00 at DD studio.

TALKS PROGRAM 2024 ; WE ARE STILL ALIVE 

Tuesday to Saturday, 11h at Mirage, 12, rue Vernon; Arles.  

“We are still alive” is a direct response to the current media landscape altered by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, which are among the deadliest and most destructive conflicts of our century. It also continues DD’s longstanding commitment to foregrounding art and documentary photography as potential sites of activism. The political urgency and conviction with which DD has organized this year’s activation is invigorating — an antidote to the wave of layoffs, resignations and boycotts that have swept the art world both locally and globally, and an act of refusal in itself. Guest speakers: Abdo Shanan, Mohamed Mahdy, Maen Hammad, Adam Broomberg, Rafael Gonzalez, Barbara, Debeuckelaere, Adam Rouhana, Max Pinckers and Kateryna Radchenko. The lecture program is organized together with the Librairie du Palais. 

Monday 1st July, 19h

Special Event : Screening “Slingshot Hip Hop” by Jackie Reem Salloum

A documentary film directed that traces the history and development of hip hop in the Palestinian

Tuesday 2th July, 11h :   

Tarweedeh Zine with Abdo Shanan and Mohamed Mahdy

A presentation about aka TAWLA, a collective of creators of photo books in Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Wednesday 3th July, 11h :  

Against Abstraction with Maen Hammad

About an activation at Double Dummy Studio.

Thursday 4th July, 11h : 

On Palestine with Adam Broomberg, Rafael Gonzalez, Barbara Debeuckelaere , Adam Rouhana, Issa Amro.

 Around Anchor in the Landscape (MACK books) and Om/Mother (Eriskay Connection).

Friday 5th July, 11h:  

State of Emergency with Max Pinckers

A conversation about a project with Mau Mau freedom fighters and survivors of Britishcolonial atrocities.

Saturday 6th July, 11h :  

Odessa Photo Days with Kateryna Radchenko

A conversation about the urgency, action, cooperation in Ukraine.

Saturday 6th July, 17h :

Resist/Refuse: In conversation with Palestinian photographers with Rehaf Batniji, Maen Hammad, Sakir Khader moderated by Tanvi Mishra. 

Over the course of the last nine months, Palestinians have demonstrated the robust power—both in production and dissemination—of the auto narrative. Not solely by choice, scores of Palestinian journalists have been compelled to document the genocide of their own people. In the face of attempts at erasure, of both their narrative and their existence, the visual archive emerging from Palestine has become a vital record of this moment that no one but those in Gaza can lay authorial claim towards. 

At VII Foundation, 49 Quai de la Roquette, Arles. 

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