The “Metamorphoses of the Political” in the Contemporary Art of Palestinian Post-Oslo Generation
Résumé
This chapter explores the reconfigurations of engagement among the new generation of Palestinian artists in the post-Oslo period and in a context of increasing cultural flows in globalized art worlds. The aim is to study the ‘metamorphoses of the political’ (in the broadest sense of the term) at work among Palestinian youth, through the lens of the artistic activities of the new generation of visual artists. The chapter draws on an interdisciplinary methodology based primarily on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in Ramallah, Gaza, and Jerusalem, during which participant observation was conducted in the contemporary art worlds of Palestine. The chapter begins with a study of how artists deconstruct nationalism and the national question in their artistic discourses and practices. It then examines how they contribute to the creation of a ‘global Palestine’ by exploring new issues, more in tune with the globalized world. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how Palestinian creative youth, by investigating the new ‘sites of the political’, participates in a – more intimate – redefinition of the political.