Randa Maddah - "A project of separation"
Randa Maddah
Randa Maddah was born in Majdal Shams / the occupied Golan Heights in 1983. Randa completed courses in drawing and sculpture at then Adham Ismail Centre in 2003, and graduated from Damascus University in the Faculty of Fine Arts & Sculpture in 2005. She went on to also complete courses in sculpture at the University of Jerusalem in 2007. Randa is a founding member of Fateh Al-Mudarres Centre for Art and Culture in the occupied Golan Heights.
She has participated in numerous solo and collective exhibitions, including her solo exhibition “Without An Address” in the Fateh Al-Mudarres Centre for Art and Culture in Golan in 2006, a joint exhibition in Al-Mada Hall, Damascus in 2006, and another joint exhibition entitled “From Golan” which toured in Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Bier Zeit 2007. She has also participated in the following exhibitions: “Young Artists’ Competition” organised by the Abdul Muhsen Qattan Foundation, 2008; “Sons of the Soil” at the Umm al-Fahm Hall for Art, 2010; a joint exhibition in Berlin at the M3 Hall, 2011; “Errors Are Allowed” in Milan, 2013.
Randa participated in the Locarno Film / Switzerland Festival 2013, and in the international meetings Festival for Arab cinema / Marseille - France 2014.
"A project of separation" Project
The idea of this work carries reflects its origins: borders imposed by wars, stretching from the pupil of the eye into the horizon. Randa Maddah, the project manager, says: "It is imperative that we find an image in these exception borders, rather than a still life, broken by a fence that does not mean a lot to my generation. We who have been born during the time of the occupation lack the awareness and understanding of what the border means symbolically: barriers and forced separation.”
In the work still to be completed, a wall made of different materials will rise; it is made out of the same materials used in the construction of barriers, walls, and checkpoints in unstable, war-torn countries. A construction worker will raise the wall in a stylish, professional manner, with detailed faces sculpted into the surface, extending into the horizon of the scene. In the end he will paint the wall, fabric will be united and perhaps the story is lot. The work will also contain voice recordings – excerpts from the life stories of some of the region's population who were born before the occupation and who lived there through every episode of its history, including the decision to annex the Golan Heights, up to today. Stories are not heard directly from the wall, but from behind it, to emphasise the idea of segregation and separation.
