By Ursula Biemann
Summer 2010 | ArteZine
For the longest time we have thought of extra-territoriality as a designated space or status that lies outside territorial boundaries and either benefits or suffers from the suspension of jurisdiction overruling the national territory. Embassies, refugee camps, free trade zones are a few cases in point. In recent years, the number and genres of extraterritorial spaces have increased, diversified and consolidated into a dense configuration of exception and exemption that superimpose and perhaps undermine the very notion of territory. What this edition of ArteEast Quarterly brings to light is the attempt at confining people in a bounded space always instigates a heightened desire to connect across distances and activate new forms of trans-local communication. A territory is no longer (just) a shape but also a complex system of relationships and large-scale structural networks. This issue presents innovative art, video, design and academic practices that analyze and intervene in these contested terrains and their regimes of representation. It is conceived as an open-ended anthology that can grow over time.
With contributions by Francesca Recchia, Anna Wachtmeister, Azad Shekhani, Ehsan Maleki, Ziad Turkey, Lee Wang, Oroub el-Abed, Rana El Nemr, Myriam Abdelaziz, Mona Fawaz, Marwan Ghandour, Sari Hanafi, Ismael Sheikh Hassan, Saba Innab, a-film, Ursula Biemann, Beshara Doumani, Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti, Eyal Weizman (Decolonizing Architecture), Ozayr Saloojee, Molly Eagen, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh, and Rasha Salti.