"Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child who is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”
The exhibition “Cry, the Beloved Country’ acts as an indictment against the homeland. A homeland that violated the holy oath of providing equal rights to all its citizens. A land that has been de-voiced, for more than a century, of freedom and justice. In this project, now more than five years in the making, Gil Mualem-Doron presents various artistic practices including historical research, media surveys, interviews, collaborations and participatory projects in the pursuit of possible responses to an impossible state. Using performances, installations, sculptures, photography and films, the exhibition is set out as a journey into “the heart of darkness”.
Transgressing the boundaries of the place from which he came, as well as the boundaries of the established art domain, Gil Mualem-Doron attempts to de-colonize both spaces.
The exhibition's title, as well, transgresses time and space – making links between various systems of oppression. “Cry, the beloved country” is taken from an article published in the most read Israeli newspaper, Maariv, in 1953, by its chief editor Dr Ezriel Karlebach.
Dr. Karlebach, who condemns in the article the treatment of Arab citizens by the new Israeli state, borrowed the title from the novel by South African author Alan Patton. The book, published in 1948, considered to be one of the most important works written against racism and discrimination, can be seen as a social indictment against the society out of which the apartheid regime was growing. Dr. Karlebach's article was translated into English especially for the exhibition and can be read here.
Dr. Gil Mualem-Doron (1970) is an Arab-Jewish artist, born and based in the UK. Mualem-Doron’s work is research-based, often collaborative and focuses on issues such as identity politics, nationalism, placemaking and histories of place, social justice, and transcultural aesthetics. His work has been exhibited in places such as the Turner Contemporary, Tate Modern, the South Bank Centre, People’s History Museum (Manchester), the Jewish Museum (London), and Haifa Museum of Art. His work is in several private collections and he has won commissions from organisations such as Counterpoints Arts, Brighton Pride, the Mayor of London and Ben & Jerry’s.