Dor Guez & CPA
To accompany the participation of the artist Dor Guez in the upcoming 18th videobrasil, we are inviting participants from the Christian Palestinian Community in São Paulo to take part in a project with Guez, to explore their own personal and family histories through archival materials and photography.
The Christian Palestinian Archive (CPA) is a growing collection of scans of archival documents from the first half of the 20th century, documenting the personal histories of the Christian Palestinian community worldwide. The CPA was founded in 2009, and includes today thousands of scans of historical images. It is the only archive dedicated to the Christian Palestinians. Unlike other archives, the CPA is not engaged in reconstruction or conservation, and all "original" photographs are sent to their owners after being scanned and added to the archive.
In the past 5 years, the CPA has been built by individuals for their community. Families from the Palestinian diaspora are contributing representations of their family albums to the archive on a daily basis. Unlike state archives, the CPA project is not based on collections of professional photographers, but on a wide range of professionals and "amateurs" photographers mixed together. Therefore, the archive includes scans of postcards, professional studio photographs, wedding photographs, passport photographs, maps, and more.
Dor Guez (b. Jerusalem) is an artist and the founder of the CPA. He is a lecturer on archives and Orientalism in the History & Theory Department at Bezalel Academy of Arts, Jerusalem, and a researcher of state archives affiliated to the Tel Aviv University. Guez is the recipient of the Orgler Scholarship for excellent PhD scholars in the Arts, Tel Aviv University; the Perlmutter Visiting Artist Award, Rose Art Museum; Brandeis University, the International Artist in Residence at Artpace, San Antonio, and the Dean's Scholarship for Excellence, Tel Aviv University. Guez's CPA based projects involves writing on the archive, Art exhibitions (at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Beursschouwburg Art Center, Brussels; the 12th Istanbul Biennial; the 3rd Moscow International Biennale; Rose Art Museum, Boston; The Mosaic Rooms, London; Artpace, San Antonio; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Benin Biennial and more), And open calls to participate in the archive.
* Participants are invited to contact the CPA via email at: christianpalestinianarchive@gmail.com
Exact schedule to be determined with individuals during the time the archive will visit Sau Paulo. All original materials contributed to the online CPA project remain with the individual contributor.