New article published by Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen published in The Burlington Contemporary
Abstract:
This article examines The Mapping Journey Project (2008–11) and The Constellation Series (2011) by Bouchra Khalili (b.1975). In the eight videos that comprise The Mapping Journey Project participants draw their migration journeys on paper maps, which Khalili subsequently translates into silkscreen prints, collectively titled The Constellation Series. The artist has repeatedly emphasised that the third video, depicting a journey through Palestine, is central to the project. This article situates the journey, map and the borderless landscape alongside works by other artists engaging with maps and movement in Palestine, reading them through Ariella Aïsha Azoulay’s notion of the ‘potential map’. Travel and desire for movement are understood here as expressions of what Azoulay terms ‘disabled rights’. By comparing Khalili’s work to other artistic engagements with movement through Palestine, the article teases out the way that desire, memory and travel function as claims of rights. In line with Azoulay’s framework, Khalili’s maps are records of injustice, memories of free movement and expressions of desire for further mobility.
