WEST BANK: Travelling the long distance from the Palestinian Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, a giant 'key of return' is now on show at the seventh edition of the Berlin Biennale

Record ID: 480348

  • Title: WEST BANK: Travelling the long distance from the Palestinian Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, a giant 'key of return' is now on show at the seventh edition of the Berlin Biennale
  • Date: 10th May 2012
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (RECENT) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BERLIN BIENNALE EXHIBITION SITE "KEY OF RETURN" SHOWN IN BACK YARD OF EXHIBITION CLOSE OF WRITING ON KEY READING IN GERMAN: 'LONG LIVE PALESTINE' VARIOUS OF EXPLANATIONS OF MEANING OF PALESTINIAN KEY ON EXHIBIT/ PAPERS WITH KEY AMBASSADOR OF PALESTINIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSION IN BERLIN, SALAH ABDEL SHAFI, LOOKING AT EXHIBIT CLOSE OF WRITING ON KEY READING IN ENGLISH: 'FREE PALESTINE' (SOUNDBITE) (English) AMBASSADOR OF PALESTINIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSION IN BERLIN, SALAH ABDEL SHAFI, SAYING: "This is a piece of Art because the key is part of the Palestinian memory, it's part of the Palestinian history. But to bring it to Berlin is to show the German people, to bring to their attention to the problem of Palestinian refugees and to tell them the story of Palestine. It's part of the Palestinian narrative." CLOSE OF WRITING ON KEY READING IN ENGLISH: 'PALESTINE FOREVER' DIRECTOR OF YOUTH CENTRE AT AIDA REFUGEE CAMP IN BETHLEHEM, MUNTHER AMIRA, WALKING BY KEY CLOSE OF KEY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF YOUTH CENTRE AT AIDA REFUGEE CAMP IN BETHLEHEM, MUNTHER AMIRA, SAYING: "I got the idea of building this key on the anniversary of the Nakba, the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, so as to show the international community and the whole world there is Palestinian refugees living under very bad conditions until now in Palestine." CLOSE OF KEY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF YOUTH CENTRE AT AIDA REFUGEE CAMP IN BETHLEHEM, MUNTHER AMIRA, SAYING: "This is the original key, which I got from my grandfather. When my grandfather was displaced from his homeland, when they demolished his home, he took the key with him, hoping that he would return to his home. So after that he gave the key to my father. After my father died, I got the key and I am holding this key with my dreams to return back to my homeland." CLOSE OF AMIRA'S KEY VISITORS WALKING PAST EXHIBIT CLOSE OF WRITING ON KEY READING (ENGLISH): 'FREE PALESTINE, LONG LIVE GAZA' (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASSOCIATE CURATOR OF BERLIN BIENNALE, JOANA WARSZA, SAYING: "We have come across this key as an expression of non-violent struggle and as a kind of affirmative gesture of showing the situation of the refugee camps in the West Bank. So, we have decided to instead of inviting an artist who would tell us the story, to invite the whole community and bring this key to Germany and somehow stand up for the Palestinian-Israeli debate." CLOSE OF HEARTS PAINTING ON KEY (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASSOCIATE CURATOR OF BERLIN BIENNALE, JOANA WARSZA, SAYING: "They key has to be seen within the context of the whole Berlin Biennale and also it is important to see how this key, which meanings it brings with it. Starting its travel in the Aida refugee camp, going through Israel, coming to Germany. And in every of those contexts it also points to different problems. So somehow there is no single reading of this key." PAN OVER KEY (SOUNDBITE) (English) BERLIN BIENNALE VISITOR FROM POLAND, KASIA KASICA, SAYING: "The key, which is opening, and with the word return it means that something might be open again with the key. The key is a symbol of opening as we all know, but being here, very huge one, I also see a man wearing a small key around his neck, so we are hear to open something not only in Art, but also in our hearts and minds. So this is what I have felt when I have seen it here." CLOSE OF WRITING ON KEY READING IN ENGLISH: 'NOT FOR SALE' WIDE OF KEY
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA36FNWNUD7LZFSZ7PR1B0E267I
  • Story Text: It is difficult to overlook the Palestinian "Key of Return." Weighing one tonne, the huge metal structure has been placed in the backyard of the 7th Berlin Biennale exhibition centre, after travelling the long distance from a Bethlehem refugee camp to the German capital.
    In March, the key started its journey from the Aida refugee camp in the West Bank. Onlookers gathered to watch workers lift the nine metre key from its position at the entrance of the refugee camp before they scrawled messages and images across it. The steel key is a collaborative creation made in 2008 by the refugees of the Bethlehem area and the Aida Youth Centre.
    Munther Amira, director of the youth centre at the camp in Bethlehem, said the exhibition would be a historical moment for the residents.
    "This is a historical moment for us the refugees and for the people who made the 'key of return'. It will participate in a huge exhibition which will be visited by no less than two million people. It is a chance to showcase Palestinian creativity and also to express our Palestinian rights and specially that of the right of return," Amira said in March, as the key was being prepared for its journey.
    Palestinian refugees at the camp were hopeful the key's inclusion at the Berlin Biennale would deliver a message on the cause of Palestinian refugees to an international audience.
    "The existence of this key in Europe and specially in Germany-Berlin for two months, means that the key will be present as if it is a person speaking on behalf of the Palestinian people and about the right of the return," said Palestinian journalist Ali Laham.
    The plight of 4.5 million Palestinian refugees, many of them living in refugee camps in the Palestinian territories or elsewhere in the region, is often ignored in interim peace deals between the Palestinians and Israel. It lies at the core of the Israel-Arab conflict that has reverberated across the Middle East and beyond for decades.
    Palestinian refugees maintain they have a "right of return" to the homes and lands they or their forebears had to flee when the Jewish state was created in 1948.
    These areas lie in what is now Israel. Israel rejects any right of Palestinians to return to the land they lost as tantamount to the Jewish state's destruction.
    The "Key of Return" is now positioned in the back yard of the Berlin Biennale exhibition site where the ambassador of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Berlin Salah Abdel Shafi says it will draw attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees.
    "This is a piece of Art because the key is part of the Palestinian memory, it's part of the Palestinian history. But to bring it to Berlin is to show the German people, to bring to their attention to the problem of Palestinian refugees and to tell them the story of Palestine. It's part of the Palestinian narrative," added Shafi.
    Munther Amira, who has travelled to Berlin with the key, explained how the idea for it was conceived.
    "I got the idea of building this key on the anniversary of the Nakba, the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, so as to show the international community and the whole world there is Palestinian refugees living under very bad conditions until now in Palestine," he said.
    The anniversary of 'Nakba', the Arabic word for "catastrophe," is annually marked by Palestinians as the day in 1948 when Israel declared statehood after which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to leave in the war that ensued.
    Amira wears a key -- the key of his grandfather's original home in what is now Israel -- around his neck.
    "This is the original key, which I got from my grandfather. When my grandfather was displaced from his homeland, when they demolished his home, he took the key with him, hoping that he would return to his home. So after that he gave the key to my father. After my father died, I got the key and I am holding this key with my dreams to return back to my homeland," he said.
    Given the political sensitivity of the subject matter, associate curator at the Berlin Biennale Joana Warsza emphasised it was important to see the key within the context of the whole exhibition and as an expression of "non-violent struggle".
    "We have come across this key as an expression of non-violent struggle and as a kind of affirmative gesture of showing the situation of the refugee camps in the West Bank. So, we have decided to instead of inviting an artist who would tell us the story, to invite the whole community and bring this key to Germany and somehow stand up for the Palestinian-Israeli debate," she said.
    "They key has to be seen within the context of the whole Berlin Biennale and also it is important to see how this key, which meanings it brings with it. Starting its travel in the Aida refugee camp, going through Israel, coming to Germany. And in every of those contexts it also points to different problems. So somehow there is no single reading of this key," Warsza added.
    One visitor to the Berlin Biennale said the "Key of Return" unlocks the observer's heart to more than just art.
    "The key, which is opening, and with the word return it means that something might be open again with the key. The key is a symbol of opening as we all know, but being here, very huge one, I also see a man wearing a small key around his neck, so we are hear to open something not only in Art, but also in our hearts and minds. So this is what I have felt when I have seen it here," said Kasia Kasica, who is from Poland.
    The key will be on show until the end of the Berlin Biennale on July 1. It has already received invitations from other countries to be included in Art exhibitions, including Belgium and Turkey.
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