Raeda Saadeh, Vacuum, 2007
Raeda Saadeh
Vacuum

Raeda Saadeh (*1977, Palestine) was born in Umm al-Fahm in 1977 and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, where she lives today. In her work, the artist often takes on different personae, which can be interpreted as radical feminist statements and as conceptual comments about social and religious issues. In her enactment of mythical figures and fairy tale characters such as Diana, Penelope and Rapunzel, Raeda Saadeh decontextualises Israel’s idealised landscapes, exploring the actual situation of the occupied areas and the crossing of social and (especially) gender-specific, standardised borders. The two-channel video performance Vacuum shows the artist vacuuming the barren hills of Palestine. This absurd but simple act not only casts a critical shadow on gender roles, but also relocates the act of vacuuming and cleaning, which is traditionally ascribed to women, from the private sphere into a politically charged space. Saadeh’s work uses the body as a tool to explore identity, gender and space as well as the relationship between place and the self. Her performances, videos and photo works are preoccupied with borders as a cultural, topographical and physical phenomenon.

The two-channel video performance Vacuum shows the artist vacuuming the barren hills of Palestine. This absurd but simple act not only casts a critical shadow on gender roles, but also relocates the act of vacuuming and cleaning, which is traditionally ascribed to women, from the private sphere into a politically charged space: “In one sense, however, the mountain is already ‘cleaned’: it contains only stones, no people live in the area. Viewing this work, a Palestinian spectator couldn’t help but recall the Zionist slogan: a land without people for a people without a land.” (Aida Nasrallah)

Courtesy Raeda Saadeh

Document media
Two-channel video installation, colour, sound, 17:07 min

Issue date
2007

To be seen in
Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 7 October 2011 – 15 January 2012

Tags
conflict, failure, housework/carework, private/public, resistance, violence