Jerusalem | 2018 | oranges | silkpaper | stopmotionvideo
The history of the orange in Israel and Palestine is filled with political symbolism. The orange industry, from the picking of the fruit to its packaging for exportation, used to be shared between Jews and Arabs. Since partnerships were created a significant middle class existed. An integrated middle class, jewish and arab.
These images were later progressively replaced and the orange then became a zionist symbol, concealing the history of the jewish - arab cooperation over this legendary fruit.
If we look at the fruit itself, we see that it ́s by nature made for sharing. It consists out of several segments that can be separated easily. If you eat an orange you are most likely sharing it with the people around you. Could this sharing of an orange be the start of a conversation? How can we make sure that we divide the Orange fairly? What if you divide and I choose?
Or is there enough for everyone?
Jerusalem is a city of walls. The seperation wall, the citywalls and the walls inside the heads. People live so close to each other, but there is almost no communication. How can we start a conversation? Bring people closer together?
I designed a set of seven games that you can play with the orange. Through the games people are encouraged to communicate with each other.
The oranges are wrapped with silkpaper that hold the instructions for the games.
The conflict is extremly complicated. I shared many oranges with many different people and didn´t get close to solve anything. But i learned to understand.