Hori Izhaki

_augmented_memory:_ ARAB_in_the_ALPS_ [IMpostER]

Today in Europe, memorialization has become an intensely debated phenomenon. As societies diversify, they are faced with challenges to established memory practices. Recognizing this and expressing the need to resist homogenization, concepts like that of a “multi-directional memory” (Michael Rothberg) call for a co-existence of narratives to serve a society that strives to be inclusive.

Born and raised in Israel in an Arabic Jewish family with roots in Morocco and Iraq, I had to face challenges of memory throughout my life. Growing up, I was not told I was Arabic, nor was the history of my ancestors taught in school or part of general knowledge. In order to be Jewish Israelis, Arabic Jews like me inserted their own selves into the Holocaust and entered a virtual memory where they belonged to the shared history of the land of the survivor. Since the Arabs were considered the enemy, there was no place for Arabic Jews and their story in the national narrative of Israel.

Living in Europe, I am invited by societal framings to perform my virtual Jewish European roots. I am welcomed here not as an Arab but as an Israeli – a modified/deleted Arab who has been given roots in the European story by the country of her birth. I can travel to, work, and live in Germany, Austria, Europe, in the “Heimat” of a virtual persona, thanks to Israel, while in Iraq, my father’s land of origin, I am not welcome. But as much as I am culturally modified, my face, my skin, my hair were not changed. And on first sight, before I get to share my persona, I am not perceived as a Jewish Israeli Arab, I am just an Arab. So, occasionally, I get a glimpse into what it means to be an Arab in Europe. This question – what it means to be an Arab in Europe today – encompasses a wider dimension of my topic.

In my project, I will explore these intergenerational and multi-local dynamics and aim to manifest the idea of implanted memory by creating an interface between technology, memorialization, and nature. By using a variety of media, the natural surroundings of my different memories, that of (Alpine) Europe and the Middle East, will be included. The interface will act as a tool to explore the relationship between diverse-to-homogenized cultures in nature and emphasize current technologies that – like memory itself – bend the boundaries of reality and truth.

Text: Hori Izhaki