100 Years – a project by Jack Persekian

Location Design Museum Helsinki, Korkeavuorenkatu 23, Helsinki
Date & time Tuesday, March 12, 2019, from 3 PM to 4:30 PM

Jerusalem’s landscape as we know it today, is merely a surface layer, a slice in a long tumultuous history that has seen people and civilizations taking over from preceding ones. Over time, layers are obscured and sometimes obliterated to the point where only but few traces or ruins can be found, if any! Since the turn of the 19th Century and invention of photography, our relationship to how we see, comprehend and communicate our understanding of history and time has dramatically changed.

By superimposing an additional layer, a photograph taken today of the same location over that taken by the American Colony photographers some hundred years ago, shot from the same spot and the same angle would move us between two distinctive times. It allows us to study the changes that occurred, compare the different times, align the physical transformations with the events that took place in the city and around the region during the last century, and deduce from those observations all the agendas at play, then, now and still to come.

Jack Persekian is the founder and Director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and Gallery Anadiel in Jerusalem. He previously held the position of Director and Head Curator of the Palestinian Museum (2012–2015); Founding Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation (2009–2011); Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial (2007–2011); Head Curator of the Sharjah Biennial (2004–2007); Founder and Artistic Director of The Jerusalem Show (2007–present), and Qalandiya International (2012-14).

Jack Persekian is at residence at HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme during March 2019.

The event is free and open for all. Presentation will be in English.

Welcome!