LiminalSpaces

Peter Friedl
The Zoo Story, 2006
Date: 20/9/2006
Topic: Request for Facilitation of Mission
From the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art ? PACA
To: the Honorary Municipal Mayor of Qalqilyah,
Copy to: Mr. Hisham Dweikat, Head of the Ministry of Culture Office?
Qalqilyah
Greetings:
We at the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art would like to
notify you that Mr. Peter Friedl who carries a German nationality is a
renowned international visual artist and is one of the participants of the
academic art project entitled Liminal Spaces, which the Association is
coordinating along with the University of Arts Berlin. This project
aempts to research and expose the practices of the occupation,
particularly from a spatial perspective and it has invited a number of
international artists and academics in order to participate in it. Friedl is
now on an art residency based in the city of Ramallah to fulfill his artistic
project, which is important on the national, cultural and political levels,
and involves exposing the monstrous actions of the Israeli occupation,
especially that which is represented in revealing the incursions and
closure policy imposed on the besieged city of Qalqilyah. After a
prolonged research via internet and media resources he discovered the
rare story of the Qalqilyah Zoo and the tragic reality it has gone through;
for it narrates with high symbolism what these animals have endured
from bombings and gas grenades, as a result of the Israeli incursions and
which have duly lead to the death of some of these animals. This reveals
that the Israeli occupation is in fact the sole perpetrator of an inhumane
aggression that even hurts and kills innocent animals. During his research,
he attempted to capture an un-stereotypical image that breaks the
monotony of media scenes of overloaded stories that have become
incapable of stirring the conscious of the world to all the war crimes being
perpetrated on Palestinian land. Peter believes that this project has a deep
sense of symbolism and is capable of capturing the truth. The artist Peter
Friedl wishes to transport one of the mummified animals and more
specifically one of the giraffes, the large giraffe,due to the high symbolism
entrenched in the act of transporting such a large-sized sculpture from a
besieged city such as Qalqilyah to outside the country.
The Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art, with German funding,
guarantees to cover the costs of this project and provide for all the needs
of transport, from insurance to shipping, and ensures that the piece will
be returned in the original state it was received upon. The mummified
piece will be shown as an art project in Leipzig Gallery in the city of
Leipzig in Germany from the 28th of October 2006 and for two months
later. We would like to inform you that this project has received the
support of the venerated Palestinian Ministry of Culture. PACA will
provide for huge media coverage, especially on an international scale, to
expose the symbolism of such a project. We hope that you could provide
us with your approval to start with the necessary provisions to accomplish
this project and facilitate our mission, knowing the importance it holds
on the national Palestinian scale and internationally.
With all respect and gratitude

======================================================

Peter Friedl
Born 1960, Austria. Peter Living and working in situ. He has held
numerous solo shows in Europe, South Africa, South America, and the
US, and has participated in major exhibitions including documenta X,
Kassel; 48th Venice Biennial, Venice; Dream City, Munich; Let?s Entertain,
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Au-del? du spectacle, Centre Pompidou,
Paris; ein/r?umen at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Adorno; The Possibility
of the Impossible, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main; Third
Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin; How Do We Want to be
Governed (Figure and Ground), Miami Art Central, Miami; Regarding
Terror: the RAF Exhibition; KW - Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
Currently, he is preparing a retrospective exhibition, Works 1964-2006, at
the Museu d?Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona. His
publications include: The Curse of the Iguana: On Genre and Power
(2000); Kromme Elleboog (2001); Four or Five Roses (2004); Theory of
Justice (2006).
pfriedl@gmx.net