Road Map

An interactive sound installation of ca 480cm x 500cm. It is a cut wooden stencil of 12 countries from the middle- east namely Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. To these countries Egypt has added been the centre for the Arab League of Nations. Turkey, which serves as an airbase for the American army and its troops. Pakistan has been strategically added because of it very interesting relationship with Afghanistan, in which the United States plays a major roll. The parts that are supposed to make up Palestine have been separated from Israel and stand on their own as islands. Under the stencils are contact microphones and movement sensors attached to them. The microphones are meant to record the movement produced by the viewers who are invited to draw on salt-layered surfaces with their tongues or fingers. The sensor connected trigger the additional sounds from everyday life for example sounds of cups breaking, airplanes, people talking etc. These sounds are meant to correspond with the movements produced by the people drawing on the layer of salt. Road Map is the third in the series of works in which I have used salt as metaphor that marries historically events and contemporary events, socially, culturally and economically. In Road Map the stencils have been covered with a layer of salt. The salt is not just used because of its political changed associations with Africa and mapping but also because of its historical and now presence in the Middle East, which was known as the Cites of Salt. It is used in many rituals world wide as well as in the Middle East. Road map has a biblical connotation to it, three weeks before 4th of April the Jewish were remembering suffering of the ancestors who had died during the exodus from Egypt. The size of each specific map is manipulated by using America?s imperial foreign policy perception of the Middle East. By the entrance of an alcove with the installation a crudely written instructive ? Draw a road map to peace with your ? tongue? on the map surface? asking the viewers to participate in the drawing. The stencils acted as sound membranes bringing a subtle historical way of communication, instead of drawing with

Road Map was premiered at the Sharajah Biennale 2007 April 4th in the United Arab Emirates.