Goethe Scenes

Inner Abroad

Travelling also means getting to know yourself. That is why the German artist Martin Lebioda based his work this summer in Ramallah and East Jerusalem on the motto Inner Abroad. The Goethe-Institut Ramallah, the Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Palestinian Art Academy granted the 35-year old a scholarship for his two-month stay. During this time, he also was given the opportunity to share with young Palestinian artists. Their mutual experiences are documented in a photo blog, in which Lebioda and local artists offer us an insight into the Middle East. Lebioda’s picture series Layers I-IX, for example, unearths the historical memory of a wall. Through the camera’s lens, the photographers attempt to show how remembrance and identity make a society artistically visible.