LiminalSpaces

Jumana Emil Abboud
Smuggling Lemons
I want to smuggle lemons from Jerusalem to Ramallah. That’s all. An
entire lemon tree actually, but since I cannot technically carry an entire
tree in my bag, I will make do with the lemons themselves.
Smuggling Lemons is a project that has several components: a video
work, an installation of the smuggled lemons, and a performance
involving a lemonade stand that will take place at the completion of the
project in order to eliminate all evidence of the smuggling operation.
One can visualize a scenario in which an individual is awarded back the
lemon tree from the very garden where the house he lost once stood. He
may naively imagine that his loss of the house was due simply to
geographical disorientation, or to a mistake made in the process of
drawing a map. Imagine that you awaken one day to find yourself
separated from both your house and garden, or to discover that your
house has been cut off from your garden.You really want to quench your
thirst with a cold glass of fresh lemonade. It occurs to you that the only
way to do this is for you to ?steal? the lemons from the tree (on the other
side of the divide) in a precarious smuggling operation.
This project will include the design of a special belt in which the lemons
will be carried in order to facilitate their transportation. There will surely
be times, however, when I will not be able to use the belt (during security
checks, for instance, when the belt might look to some like a suspicious
explosive belt); in such instances, the lemons will be carried by hand,
placed in a purse, put under my armpits, placed inside my mouth or in a
pocket, etc.
I will make the journey from Jerusalem to Ramallah several times,
carrying another batch of lemons each time.  One can never foresee the
route one will have to take, the situation at the border, or the possibility
of passing through checkpoints; hence the visual documentation of the
journey. I will travel through the landscape, carrying the lemons in my
hand or around my waist as if I am carrying my first born child, directing
her attention to the landscape in all its glory,pointing towards my favorite
spots, and ? upon arrival ? rocking her gently to say ?Look, we?re
home.?
Once enough lemons have been smuggled, I will host a sort of celebration
during which I will attempt to dispose of all the lemons by making
lemonade out of them and selling all the juice. The lemonade will be very
cheap, in order to encourage consumption of all the lemons and thus to
eradicate, or at least question, the very idea of the lemon?s tree existence.
Lemons are like jewels. They represent the wealth and glory of the earth,
a historical and personal encyclopedia of cultural attachments and
baggage. They symbolize heritage, memory and longing, national identity
and individual acts of “heroism” (or the illusion thereof), destruction and
loss, betrayal and abandon; at the same time, the lemons could simply
negotiate a ritual procedure involving the making of a fresh glass of
lemonade.

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Jumana Emil Abboud
Lives and work in Jerusalem. Uses different media, including drawing,
video, performance and text to depict both memory, loss and resilience.
The artist was born in Shefa-Amer (Palestine, 1971) before moving to
Canada in 1979 where she studied art at the Ontario College of Art
(Toronto). Back to her homeland, she studied at the Bezalel Academy of
Art and Design (Jerusalem), where she attained her BFA. She has given
several workshops and seminars, some of them focusing on Palestinian-
Israel dialogue. Some of her exhibitions include: ?Belonging?, (2005, The
Seventh International Sharjah Biennial, U.A.E.); ?if I could stitch your
tongue to my bed, (performance, 2004, Anonymous House, Tel Aviv);
?Unscene? (2004,Stephen Lawrence Gallery, London); ?Shame? (2004,
Digital Art Center, Holon);  ?DisOrientation? (2003, House of World
Cultures, Berlin); ?Something to Confuse a Thief in the Dark? (2002,
Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau, Switzerland); ?The Last Drawing of the
Century ? (2000, Zerynthia Centre for Contemporary Art, Rome); ?Zim
Zum?, (2000, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany); La Havana
International Biennial (2000, Havana, Cuba); Mediterranean Biennial for
Young Artists (1999, Rome).
2jumana@gmail.com