Ardna

2024

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Ardna,

olive ash, red dirt, pigments

600cm x 400 cm

Centrale Fies

Dro,Italy

2024

Ardna, an Arabic term meaning “our land”, is an installation consisting of an olive tree and a carpet of ash around it. Wrapping and protecting the plant, the ash represents a natural fertilizer for its roots and, at the same time, draws geometries traceable to a keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian resilience and resistance.

The ash becomes an emblem of hope, which, in the same way that it strengthens the olive tree and its belonging to the land, aims to do the same with the people of Palestine.

In Ardna, execution and process are integral to the final installation. While composing the keffiyeh, the artist enters a state of meditation and spirituality, sifting the ash with precise and sequential movements as if it were an act of devotion.

“If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them,

their oil would become tears.”

I began my research inspired by a quote Mahmoud Darwish made during one of his speeches If the ancient trees were endowed with faculties comparable to those of humans, they would be so overwhelmed by the oppression of their indigenous factors that their biological essence, their life-preserving gifts, would be irreversibly invaded by pain and despair.

Ardna,

olive ash, red dirt, pigments

400cm x 400 cm

Fabrica

Treviso, Italy

2024

Olive trees represent the symbol of Palestinian steadfastness, resistance and resilience. They are an integral part of the landscape, and cultivation dates back nearly 6,000 years. Over the years of occupation, an estimated 2.5 million Palestinian trees, a third of which are olive trees, are believed to have been uprooted and intentionally burned by the Israeli army and settlers.The destruction of ancient and precious olive trees is more than a symbolic blow; it is an attempt by Israel, the settlers and the occupying army that protects them, to get rid of the indigenous population.

Ardna,

Collective performance

Centrale Fies

Dro, Italy

2024

The Keffiyeh of ashes was collected in a collective symbolic gesture, by more than thirty people including artists, audience, and the Centrale Fies team, who gathered around Ardna’s installation. All the guests took the end of the plastic sheeting used as a base, and collectively gathered it around the trunk of the olive tree, thus acting as its placenta, with the ash and soil collected from the roots of the plant inside.

Ardna,

Centrale Fies

2024

Each olive tree used for the creation of this installation, will be replanted taking the name of the project, and soil and ash will be buried under and around the roots of the tree thus acting as a placenta, nourishing it with the very work it will accompany forever.

Ardna,

Fabrica

2024