Marco Nereo Rotelli will be one of many artists who will partake in the inauguration the Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the Occupied Territories, which is dedicated to Palestine’s history and culture. This extraordinary event for Palestine is also an opportunity to mark the 68th anniversary of the 1948 expulsion of many Palestinians from their homeland, also known as the Nakba.
The building was designed by Dublin-based architects Heneghan Peng and will be inaugurated on 18 May. The landscape architect is Jordanian designer Lara Zureikat.
Marco Nereo Rotelli will design a light installation evoking the places of Palestinians in exile around the world, through a clever use of technology.
Words and images on the concept of identity will be projected on the different facades of the building, using verses by Palestinian poets to create an evocative dimension that becomes food for thought, as always with the works designed by this extraordinary artist. Rotelli will also offer a live performance with an overhead projector together with a master calligrapher from Ramallah, the artist Mohammed Amous.
Rotelli, who has worked with many writers and poets such as Fernanda Pivano, Adonis, Edoardo Sanguineti, Yang Lian and Andrea Zanzotto, gives physical shape to poetry, which becomes a “place”, a language, a vivid metaphor. By turning a building into a large poetry page, he brings together all the traditions of a single nation.
The video projection on the Museum’s south-eastern facade above the amphitheatre will be the focal point of this event. Exile and the power of memory will be the main theme of his work.
This is perhaps one of the most important works designed by Rotelli to date who uses light to convey a message of hope.