Online Red Lounge: ‘Images, Projections and Media’ 

On December 12th, Willy Brandt Center’s Social Art Program invited its participants to an online Red Lounge titled “Images, Projections and Media”. We set up three different sessions with speakers from the field of media, images and photography, who shared their work, mission and vision.

The event began with a session on New Social Online Journalism. Jala Abu Arab, a young dynamic editor in chief of Dooz –a new and highly popular media institution and training center located in the West Bank – introduced the innovative social multimedia news and exchange platform that focuses mainly on local topics. Abu Arab explained about Dooz’s fight for ethical reporting and against fake news, and presented their initiatives with the aim to give a strong and courageous voice to civil society and to focus on helping people, making positive changes and developing public spaces for debates and information.
In our second session, featuring Bauhaus architecture in Palestine, we welcomed Australian architectural photographer Mikaela Burstow, who has been based in Israel/Palestine for the past 11 years but regularly presents her work internationally in Berlin, Dubai, Tel Aviv, London and Sidney, as well as at festivals in Istanbul, Rotterdam, Nuremberg and Milano. Burstow gave insights into her work in the region and her artistic participation in several exhibitions, books and other political and historical projects. During her presentation, Burstow led us to discover impressive unknown architecture of the International Style in Palestinian cities such as Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and Tulkarem, and showed examples of contemporary architecture in Palestine that was inspired by it.

The event concluded with an online vernissage and talk with Hani Amra, an artist from the Palestinian diaspora who was born in French West Indies, grew up in Jerusalem and studied both literature and art in France. Guests of the vernissage had the chance to view pieces of his series titled “Under the Bird’s Wing”, including collages of historic and contemporary newspaper cuttings, and to learn about the philosophy and multilayered background of Amra’s artistic work.