Selected and presented by Alaa Mansour

In their video work Introduction to the End of an Argument. Intifada: Speaking for Oneself. Speaking for Others, released in 1990, Lebanese-Canadian artist and filmmaker Jayce Salloum and Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman undo and redo history at a kinetic speed. The work simulates a “mediarcheological” descent into Western and Israeli visual and militaristic propaganda, emphasising racist aberrations and widespread cultural myths that objectify the figure of the Arab and demonise the act of resistance. Through a tirade of signs – images, sounds and texts, essentially taken from TV news coverage as well as films and cartoons made in Hollywood, the viewer is exposed to a surplus of cognitive solicitations that mimics the televisual orchestration of information. Whilst disarticulating predominant political rhetorics and archetypal representations, the work challenges the ethics of image and discourse production and circulation in the context of war and the colonisation of Palestine. In re-employing fictions and activating the materiality of archives, this work not only points out the ruthless state control and state suppression of history that is at the core of the media and entertainment industry, but also calls for an aesthetic of doubt that subverts the power of imagery and sees for oneself and the others.

Courtesy of the artist and LUX, London