8.5 x 11.75 inches
Edition of 700
The
first time Adam Golfer showed me
A House Without a Roof,
it was
summer
2015 and it was a dummy. The book was very different in its look, but
it was already informed by a complex, manifolded structure which
weaves together fictions of Adam's family chronicle in Europe and USA
with representations from Israel’s founding and ongoing military
occupation. The project derived from a pretty long and dense
gestation, beginning in winter 2011-12, when Adam started
photographing the
landscape around Jerusalem and the Occupied West Bank.
While
reflecting the contested historical narratives of Israel and
Palestine, the book is in fact a very deep investigation of Adam's
biographical
connection to this land.
With his grandparents being Holocaust survivors, and his father's
fascination with the Israeli state based on his brief experiences
there in a more idyllic time (early 1970s), Adam sees the
circumstances of the creation of Israel, mass Palestinian
displacement and the ongoing occupation as a continuation of the
histories evolving out of the traumas of WWII. As a reflection of the
multiplicity of story- and timelines, the book ended
up includinges a wide spectrum of sources - such as archival objects,
references to the religious histories of the land, and the second
world war, personal documents and found imagery - that are here all
connected like elements of a navigation chart.
After more than 24 months from my first encounter with the dummy, and 12 from the book's publication, today I finally have it on my desk. I kind of like these long travels - they give time for thoughts and impressions to sediment and mature. Anyhow, what impressed me right away is the use of the color gold - a pervasive presence throughout the whole book, starting from the cover.
There is more than one reason connected to this element. The first is quite straightforward: golden is the Dome of the Rock in the Old City in Jerusalem, a holy site to Jews, Christians and Muslims together. It's the symbol of the historic attachment that each group has to the same land: a symbol of union and division at the same time, a sort of raw material that reflects different versions of the same story, like a golden plate reflects light accordingly to its inclination. Another reason I see behind this choice is that, despite the homogeneous feeling it conveys on the chromatic level, gold is a heavy color, and it makes no exception in this book, that has no intention of being an easy one. Adam encourages the readers to take their time in elaborating the book, both in its images and its texts, that are a fundamental part of the oeuvre and are presented in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
Giving space to a trilingual version of all texts might look like a quite an unusual decision for a photobook, where the common format sees the image prevailing over the written word. It could even be seen as a statement in open contradiction with the so-called universal language of photography. In fact, this choice underlines the weight carried by language as an element of either union or contrast, especially in a time where how we access, process and disseminate information is key factor for social equity. Adam proves to be aware of the political privilege embedded into language, a fortiori as a passport carrying​ U.S. citizen, a man, and a native English speaker. I feel grateful for this attentive perspective, that grounds the book on a level that is deeper than the "merely" artistic one. In my eyes, it is meaningful that it was released right after Brexit and short before Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, in a moment of extreme crisis of the values of trust, inclusion and commonality that Westerns have almost given for granted after WWII.
Throughout
the book, several narratives are all at play, and convey different
registers of meaning, simultaneously. An
example of this is the Anne Frank/Facebook/iPhone screen-shot, People
You Might Know.
The image raises questions about the manner in which individuals
become emblematic of events, how social media by design forces
us to repeatedly confront our personal histories, and how a simple
image can evolve into a dark irony when presented out of context. Two
short stories in the book reference these ideas: the first is a
conversation about the relative "newness" of social media
when considered in history (i.e. "What if the Nazis had
Facebook?"). The second is a story told from the point of view
of a child, which references the anxieties and confusion associated
with trying to unpack Schindler's
List
at a very young age.
The
iconography of images, accessing archives, the internet and social
media, personal memory, recent history and current geopolitics are
all addressed in A
House Without a Roof, a
book that opens many questions and asks for our active engagement.
Its structure is open and dense and it succeeds in being elegant and
powerful at the same time. The eye is pleased while the heart is
moved and the brain is prodded. One last detail I find heartbreaking
is the
title. It references the refusal of Palestinians in refugee
camps to build permanent dwelling structures, which would signify an
acceptance of their situation as permanent. In the face of
displacement, it is an act of defiance and a silent promise to keep
the candle burning in the hopes that one day they will return"home".
Buy the book here