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Ramallah in the Past
Vera Tamari
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An affliction or a blessing? To many of its original inhabitants, most of whom have in the
course of the last hundred years immigrated to North America, seeing Ramallah now, is both
an affliction and a blessing. Their individual and collective memory of the place - the “village”
they had left behind, has become confused and somewhat marred by the dramatic change
in recent decades. Ramallah now is a throbbing cosmopolitan city, a heterogeneous social
structure, experiencing fast demographic and economic change and the emergence of the
new middle class as observed in the change in peoples’ attire, in living styles, in behavior
and in accent. There is as well as an unprecedented construction boom and transformation
in the landscape. The ethnographic section in “Ramallah - the fairest of them all?” mirrors
issues of roots and authenticity, touching on the meanings of belonging, ownership, loss and
estrangement. It’s a tale of Ramallah as it was in the 40’s and 50’s of last century, a small town
rooted in the history of its family clans and origins. Relived in this exhibition as if through the
mirror of the past, Ramallah is remembered as a charming place, with personal stories of love,
immigration, marriage, myths, heroes and anti-heroes. It’s a story that narrates life modes,
ceremonies and rituals of private, sometimes mundane reality of everyday life. A cry of loss?
Perhaps, yet this exhibition is an invitation for recovery and reflection not only on the Ramallah
that was but what it ought to be.
Vera Tamari - Curator
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Location : Ramallah
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Date of work : 2010
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