The Sea [Twinkle Twinkle 2021] (06:55)
Concept & Direction: Gil Mualem-Doron
Concept and editing: Gil Mualem-Doron Photography - Joe Hartman Singing - Juliet Russell, Vocal Explosion. Violin - Geoff Falk.
The short video work Twinkle Twinkle highlights the death of refugee children at sea crossings and the betrayal of the UN's member countries to the promise given to refugees in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Queens Hall Arts digital curator Dominic Smith commissioned the work created for the 70th Anniversary of the UN Refugee Convention.
The Dunes [2023]
Photography: Gil Mualem-Doron
Modelling: Mikey Chambers
Music: World on Fire by Andy Bird
The Dunes, a photography series and short video artwork alludes to the story of the Spanish artist César Manrique who burned his uniform after returning to Lanzarote from fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The photoshoot occurred at the Búnker de Arinaga in Gran Canaria, built during World War II. The site was littered with Neo-Nazi graffiti, which Mikey chipped from the walls with a stone. The work includes another night photoshoot at the nearby Maspalomas dunes, one of the most popular gay cruising sites in Europe. During the Franco dictatorship, on a nearby island, gays were imprisoned in a "re-educational camp" after the "Social Danger Laws" were approved on 4 August 1970.
The Beach [Rosetta 2013] 04:13
Photography: Gil Mualem-Doron
Acting: Maram Atouleh
Poetry: Mahmoud Darwish
For a long time, the beach north of Old Jaffa has been unauthorised and has no name. Its border is made out of the destroyed houses of the village of Al-Rasid (Rosetta, in English) which existed until the 1948 war. The village was built outside Yafa’s walls by Egyptian soldiers from the village of Al-Rashid, on the banks of the Nile, who had remained in Yafa following the withdrawal of their leader, Ibrahim Pasha, who had ruled Yafa from 1831 to 1834. The Egyptian village of Al-Rasid was where the Rosetta Stone was discovered.
Until 2011 a small part of a beautiful large house still existed at the beach's edge. The only other structure left was renovated and turned into Biet-Gidi - a museum that celebrates the occupation of the area by the Israeli's Etzel forces in 1948.
The film depicts Maram, a Palestinian teenager from Jaffa, whose grandmother's house stood nearby until it was demolished soon after the 1948 War. Her grandmother is one of the 300,000 Palestinian internal refugees whose land and houses were confiscated in 1948 and who have been banned from returning to the places they had to leave. Maram goes forward and back through various actions between Biet Gidi and the last remnants of Al-Rasid neighbourhood. The remnant was destroyed by Tel Aviv municipality a few days after the film was made.
The film was commissioned by Zochrot for the 1st 48mm Film Festival 2013 [ https://zochrot.org/en/article/55076]
Artist's Bio
Gil Mualem-Doron is an award-winning transdisciplinary artist, researcher, and curator. He is the founder and creative director of the Socially Engaged Art Salon [SEAS CIC] Gil’s work investigates issues such as identity & place, histories of displacement, embodied experiences of migration, the legacies of colonialism, social practices, and transcultural aesthetics. His PhD thesis, "The Dead Zone & The Architecture of Transgression" incorporates these issues and investigates historical and contemporary urban planning concepts from postcolonial perspectives. His work has been exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad, including at Tate Modern, the Turner Contemporary, Liverpool Museum, People’s History Museum, Turner Contemporary, Haifa Museum of Art, Ha’aretz Museum.
He had solo exhibitions at the People's History Museum Manchester, P21 Gallery, Rich Mix, The Foundery and the Arts Depot galleries in London, ONCA Gallery Brighton, Umm El Fahem Palestinian Gallery, and the Architect's House, Jaffa. East66 – Centre for Urban Research (Amsterdam), Greatmore Studios [Cape Town] and Detroit – Centre for Urban Ecology.
Gil has won awards from bodies such as the Henry Ford Foundation, the Chevening Award for leadership, and the Art Council England and commissions from such as The Mayor of London, The World Re-Imagined, Counterpoints Arts, and Ben & Jerry's.
Instagram: @gil_mualem_doron
Website: www.gmdart.com