My MBA project was of the Seam of Jerusalem, aka The Green Line
A few years ago I made a humerous exercise video about the Green Line. ( link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZ2wmvWz1E ) My video was in reaction to the video by Francis Alÿs The Greenline (link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS5QJ8aG7zA ), which I though naive and politicised. My MBA project became more serious. I believed that the subject deserved a more nuanced, researched and balanced approach.
The Seam of Jerusalem connects two communities like the seam of a garment, . The join functions but is very imperfect. All cities have seams where communities have been imperfectly integrated, leaving areas unexamined by those living close by or passing through.
I live on the Seam of Jerusalem. The Seam is the visible evidence of Jerusalem’s violent division in 1948 and re-joining in 1967. When I leave my home and walk a few metres, I see two adjacent cities with different economies, legal structures, infrastructures, and communities. Linking them are the areas of the Seam.
The Seam is a curving thirty kilometres slice through the heart of the city, from a few metres to two kilometres wide. Two years ago, I started walking and exploring the Seam with my camera. The Seam separates the city, relics demarcate it, and people share it.
Along the Seam are the relics of its past: fortifications, watch towers, trenches, razor-wire. And relics for its future: buildings, recreational facilities, roads, bridges.
People on the Seam walk, shop, eat, talk, sing. They are everyday ghosts in my images, unaware of being viewed. These ghosts are custodians of not only the city’s present but also of its past and future.
The Seam Book describes The Seam in text and image. The link is tinyurl.com/TheSeamBook
The Seam Project is a video of key images from the project. The link is tinyurl.com/TheSeamProject