“I was petrified by anxiety.” At the Biennale Internationale de Lyon, “Au cas où #2” by Taysir Batnisi is the only work on the war in Gaza. As discreet as his installation, the Palestinian artist examines the tragedy in depth and with poetry. At the same time, his restraint lets his revolt be felt all the more. Born in 1966 in Gaza, he has lived and worked in Paris for decades, but remains viscerally linked to his birthplace where his mother still lives. Interview.
6 mins
In In case #2four white walls surround us, filled with 200 color photos showing keys. The captions, handwritten in pencil, become one with the image. An installation of dazzling softness. The look of the visual artist Taysir Batnisi on destroyed homes of Palestinians in Gaza, fleeing inhabitants, is incredibly relevant. He succeeds in giving a disconcerting formal beauty endowed with a fragile force to engrave shocking realities in our hearts and retinas.
RFI : At the Lyon Biennale, you are exhibiting a work composed of 200 color photos, each showing a bunch of keys. Your installation is the key to understanding what ?
Taysir Batnisi : These are sets of keys to the houses of Palestinians from Gaza. People who lived in northern Gaza and were forced to leave their homes and become refugees in central and southern Gaza. These are homes that are mostly destroyed now. These people, although their homes are destroyed, still keep the keys to their homes, hoping that the war will end one day and they can return, rebuild their homes…
These are keys that I asked people for, either personally – I contacted friends, people I know – or through people who know people, asking them to send me a copy of their key ring on a white background, because I still wanted there to be a kind of unity, that all the keys be taken on a neutral background, a white background, and with the story of each person interested, the name of the person, where they lived in Gaza, when they left their house, for what reason, on what date and where they went. And finally, if the house is still standing, or if it was destroyed, when?
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Let’s take an example from the 200 sets of keys. In this photo, what does this key teach us? ?
It is a key ring with a key ring, featuring Handala, the character created by Naji al-Ali, a Palestinian cartoonist who was assassinated in London in 1997. [Le personnage Handala symbolise la tragédie de tout un peuple à travers ce petit garçon de 10 ans, l’âge auquel Naji avec dû quitter la Palestine, NDLR]. And here we read: ” Abd El-Rahman Shamallakh, resident of Sheikh Ijlin neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City. Refugee on October 14, 2023 in Al-Mawasi in Khan Yaines. His house was destroyed on March 30, 2024. »
You were born in Gaza, but you have been working in Paris for a long time. How did you receive this key? ?
I contacted people who sent me images of their keys on WhatsApp. Or I asked people there to help me collect images, keys from people they know. It was really a bit of word of mouth. There was a person who sent me quite a few keys, who ended up becoming my assistant there. A young girl who helped me a lot to get keys, with the stories of these houses.
Here, at the Lyon Biennale, among the 280 works exhibited, your work, In case #2, is the only one on the war in Gaza. Does that surprise you? ? Does this surprise you? ? Or honor you ?
In fact, at the beginning of the war, it was very complicated to do something about the war. It’s always complicated. And even talking about it was very, very complicated. This work really started around March. There are two things that perhaps motivated, facilitated this decision to work on these keys. The first, the keys, is an element that comes up a lot in my work on several points. The house keys question the notion of home, belonging, of being here, of being there. In these conditions, it was perhaps easier to make the shift, between a state where one can no longer speak, one cannot express. Everything seemed really insignificant, even an artistic expression, and not only speech, but any artistic form seemed vain in the face of what was happening.
The second element, I was contacted by Alexia Fabre, the curator of the Biennale, who suggested that I participate in the Lyon Biennale this year. She expressed the wish that there be something new for this occasion. For me, it was a motivating element that helped me take the plunge and get started. I had the idea in mind, but I was caught up in what was happening, petrified by anxiety and worry, especially for my family, many of whom remained there. So, it was an element that motivated me to move forward with this project and finally give it shape, as we see here in this exhibition where we see 200 keys to houses of Palestinians from Gaza.
