Khalil Rabah
born 1961 in Jerusalem,
lives and works in Ramallah and London.
Artist and curator. Rabah is co-founder of Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem and of the Riwaq Biennial (2005), and is also the founder of The Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind. He is a member since 2010 of the Curriculum Committee of the Home Workspace Program, an educational initiative launched by Ashkal Alwan.
“Biproduct” is a large-scale digital print that features an aircraft carrier in the shape of the Gaza Strip. The vessel was transformed into a farm – a plantation of tomatoes and strawberries, which cannot be cultivated in the Gaza Strip under Israeli restrictions. As with his previous projects, where the artist created a fictitious Palestinian museum, airline, newspaper, and advertising agency, Rabah resorts to irony and humour in order to deliver a critical commentary on the current situation of Palestine. The artist uses absurdity to emphasise the dramatic situation of a country that is constantly negated by world politicians; whose infrastructure is regularly destroyed by armed conflicts, and whose history and culture – one of the oldest and richest in the region – is ignored.