Oush Grab

Oush Grab, 2008

Mixed-Media Installation, Photographs, Photomontages, Drawings

Room 3

In May 2006, the Israeli army evacuated the strategically located military fortress of Oush Grab at the southern edge of Beit Sahour in Palestine. Several concrete buildings formed the heart of the fortress. Throughout the Second Intifada, the Israeli military piled sand and rubble in a giant circle around the hill, making it appear like a crater or artificial volcano. Since its evacuation, groups of Israeli settlers have attempted to establish a new colony within Oush Grab. A fight for the hilltop has taken place as activists, settlers and the Israeli military clash both in situ and in the courts.

The hilltop is also a point of natural singularity. It serves as one of the main sites where birds—starlings, storks, and raptors—land to rest on their seasonal migration between Northeast Europe and East Africa every spring and fall. Around them, a rich micro-ecology of small predators and other wildlife gathers.

The project seeks to accelerate the processes of destruction and disintegration through an architectural intervention that returns the abandoned military structures to nature.

 

Credits:

DAAR – Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal, and Eyal Weizman, with Sara Pellegrini, Mario Abruzzese, Jiries Boullata, Francesca Vargiu, Francesco Mattuzzi, Roberto Sartor, Allegra Martin, Brave New Alps, Situ Studio, Rianne van Doeveren

Location: Oush Grab, Beit Sahour, Palestine

Images: Francesco Mattuzzi (Photographs ) and  Sara Pellegrini (Photomontages)