Bienal de Pontevedra

For the Pontevedra Biennial, Emily Jacir revisits a 2007 research focused on Wael Zuaiter’s assassination, a Palestinian intellectual who was executed by Mossad agents in Rome in 1972. The piece, located on the façade of the Casa da Luz, uses various symbolic elements to tell this story. A tapestry showing the book One Thousand and One Nights pierced by a bullet, a neon with a quote from English poet Francis Thompson and columns wrapped in white shrouds recall Zuaiter’s assassination, the first of a series of attacks against the Palestinian people in Europe. Thus, the work refers to the violence and suffering of thousands of people who have been victims of the occupation. The intervention transforms the public space into a reminder of the forgotten stories and the invisible bodies of Palestinian history.