there is a parallel dimension, just one millimeter away from this one, where all of the tragedies on earth never happened. an earth so much like our own that it has our same creatures. magnificent fish that rainbow the oceans, huge whales that sing sonar to babies, and nurse their young, floating at sea.
October, 2023
We condemn 75 Years of
land theft, genocide, white supremacy and settler colonialism by Israel, the United States and their Western allies.
We call for the full return of PALESTINE in the same breath with which we call for the return of ALL stolen lands, including the US.
We demand, dream and work toward the return of all plant life, moutains, waters, minerals, farms and genrified neighborhoods, to the indigenous beings who lovingly cared for them for centuries. We call - from our hearts - for the freedom, dignity and restoration of all beings, across species, harmed by 500 years of colonialism.
October, 2023
We condemn 75 Years of
land theft, genocide, white supremacy and settler colonialism by Israel, the United States and their Western allies.
We call for the full return of PALESTINE in the same breath with which we call for the return of ALL stolen lands, including the US.
We demand, dream and work toward the return of all plant life, moutains, waters, minerals, farms and genrified neighborhoods, to the indigenous beings who lovingly cared for them for centuries. We call - from our hearts - for the freedom, dignity and restoration of all beings, across species, harmed by 500 years of colonialism.
RANIA LEE KHALIL
علم البيئة العالم الثالث
The
Third World
Ecology Trilogy
and other works
PALESTINIAN WILDLIFE SERIES
expanded cinema performance
arabic & english subtitles
2016
Palestinian Wildlife Series appropriates footage from a nature documentary on African Wildlife - shot from a television set in Palestine - to reflect on parallel issues of displacement, mediation, representation and extinction among human and non-human beings.
Palestinian Wildlife Series is part one of the Third World Ecology Trilogy, which meditates on devastation from colonialism across animal, plant and human life.
Palestinian Wildlife Series was created with the support of the Kone Foundation and Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art.
THE PAN AFRICAN ASIAN WOMEN’S ORGANIZATION
CAIRO TO CONAKRY, 1960 - 1965
slide projection, video, live performance
2019
Combining family archives with ecological records,
The Pan-African Asian Women’s Organization,
Cairo - Conakry 1960 - 1965 reflects on a women’s rights
organization, co-founded by Rania Lee Khalil’s maternal
grandmother Aida Hamdi.
The Gamaya’at el Ma’ra had headquarters in Egypt and Guinea -
two of the first African nations to achieve independence
from colonial rule - as well as the native countries’ of its two
female co- founders. This women’s organization was formed
at a time of widespread socialist movements
for independence in Africa, Asia and the Americas,
while Hamdi served in Egypt’s Ministry of Education under
President Gamal Abdel Nassesr.
In this moving image, part of a scene entitled “Families of
Assassinated Leaders”, we see a sampling of the minerals and
animal life extracted by Belgians in the Congo between
1898 and 1961 (including Uranium sold to the U.S.’s
Manhattan project, to make the world’s first atomic bomb).
This project was created with the support of the CIMO
and Kone Foundations, Finland.
The Gamayat el Mara, Pan African Asian Women’s Organization,
Egyptian delegation, Cairo 1961. This meeting honored
Algerian Revolutionaries Djamila Bouhired and Zohra Drif,
and was organized by Rania Lee Khalil’s maternal grandmother,
Aida Hamdi.
Aida Hamdi stands behind Bouhired and Drif
(both seated, center right, holding flowers)- though dressed in clothes
of mourning, she is pictured smiling, in a black dress.
Djamila Bourhired and Zohra Drif played significant roles
in the armed resistance that ended one hundred and twenty two
years of French settler colonization in Algeria.
Their roles are well documented, including within
Yousef Chahine’s 1958 film Jamila the Algerian
and Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, 1966.
In the same clothes as they are wearing in this photo,
Bouhired and Drif would be welcomed by Egyptian
president Gamal Abdel Nasser
(image lower right corner).
The following day
Bouhired would be photographed laughng with Egyptian
singer Abdel Halim Hafez.
SINAI (a story i tell my daughter)
single channel video
2019- 2020
Combining sensual movements of water and sea plants in the Egyptian Sinai,
this short essay film reflects on a twin dimention of earth
where the tragedies to our planet and its indigenous beings never happened.
This project was created with the support of the Kone Foundation.