The starting point for the project is a scar on the forehead of the artist’s grandfather. The scar was a result of a bullet shot in his direction by an Israeli soldier in the late 1940’s. Focusing on the sagas of myth and the construction of memory, members of the same family are filmed individually as they narrate their version of the same event. By scratching the surface of family history, the project explores the scar as a foundational hinge that arranges reality.

Mnemosyne

In We No Longer Prefer Mountains, Halabi reflects upon the particular political and social condition of the Druze community living in occupied Palestine, taking individual and personal stories as a point of departure. It begins with an ascent of Mount Carmel upon which the Druze towns of Dalyet el Carmel and Isfiya are located, drawing the viewer into a world of geographic isolation and a locale shaped by coercion and control. Living mostly in mountainous areas in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine/Israel, as well as in diaspora globally, the Druze maintain close-knit social and religious ties as a minority within and across national borders.