In Disruptions, Palestinian artist Taysir Batniji collects fragmented screenshots taken between 2015 and 2017 during WhatsApp video conversations with his mother and family in Gaza.
Settled in Europe and unable to return to his homeland for years, this digital communication provided a crucial meeting ground for Batniji and his family: a space nonetheless shaped and destabilised by the same forces affecting the artist’s relatives in everyday life.
Through resolution and compression, Batniji’s poor images politically visualise how communication and daily life in Gaza are compromised by conflict, control and surveillance. In their noise and visual obliqueness, Batniji creates a thread between common intimacy and the colonial, now genocidal violence imposed upon Gaza to date, while evoking the physical and emotional separation that occurs across borders.
Publisher Loose Joints will be donating 100% of the profits from Disruptions towards the NGO Medical Aid Palestine.
Loose Joints, €40, Limited edition with prints, €150, shipping January 2024.
