Arkadi Zaide - Archive (2014). Photo 1: Gadi Dagon / Photo 2-5: © Ronen Guter 

Archive 


B’Tselem is the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Since 2007, the organization has been operating its Camera Project, which distributes video cameras to Palestinians in high conflict areas in the West Bank. The project aims to provide an ongoing documentation of human rights violations, and to expose the reality of life under occupation to both the Israeli and the international public.

Throughout the work process, Zaides reviewed and selected footage that was filmed by volunteers of B’Tselem’s Camera Project. On stage, he examines the bodies of Israelis as they were captured on camera, and focuses on the physical reactions to which they resort in various confrontational situations. The Palestinians remain behind the camera, nevertheless, their movement, voice, and point of view are highly present, determining the viewer’s perspective.

Although the footage reveals a local reality, Archive raises broader, more universal questions: what is the potential of violence embedded in each individual body, and what price does the collective pay for governing the other. Zaides extracts and appropriates gestures and voices of fellow Israelis. He identify with the footage and engages in it, gradually embodying it. The mimetic choreographic practice raises questions of participation and responsibility as Zaides’ body transforms into a living archive.


CREDITS

Archive materials: volunteers for the "Camera Project" of B'Tselem - The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories:
Iman Sufan, Mu'az Sufan, Bilal Tamimi, Udai 'Aqel, Awani D'ana, Bassam J'abri, Abu 'Ayesha, Qassem Saleh, Mustafa Elkam, Raed Abu Ermeileh, Abu Sa'ifan, Oren Yakobovich, Nayel Najar

Concept & choreography
Arkadi Zaides

Video consultant
Effi Weiss, Amir Borenstein 

Sound art & voice dramaturgy
Tom Tlalim 

Artistic advice 
Katerina Bakatsaki

Assistant choreography
Ofir Yudilevitch/Gilad Jerusalmy

Costume
Adam Kalderon 

Light 
Thalie Lurault 

Remote Control Interface 
Pierre-Olivier Boulant 

Technical direction
Etienne Exbrayat, Yoav Barel

Sound technician 
Cyril Communal 

Production
Yael Bechor 

Special thanks
Myriam Van Imschoot

Produced by
Arkadi Zaides

Co-produced by
Festival D’Avignon, CDC Toulouse, Theatre National De Chaillot (FR), CNDC Angers (FR)

Residencies
STUK Leuven, CDC Toulouse, CNDC Angers, Theatre National De Chaillot, WP Zimmer 

Distribution 
Something Great