Birzeit University Museum Organizes Lecture

On 2 April 2012, BZU Museum hosted Professor
of Visual Art at the University of San Diego John Halaka who
delivered a lecture titled: “Forgotten Survivors: Reflections on Palestinian
Landscapes of Desire and Denial.” This lecture is part of the Museum’s
activity program for 2012 which aims to present visual and contemporary art to
the Palestinian community in general and to the BZU community in particular. It
is also a part of the Museum's initiative to encourage research within artistic
practices and their connection to the various social transformations.

Professor
Halaka discussed the development of his recent
artwork and the relationship between his drawings and documentary film
projects. The lecture included a reading for an art project, which delves into
collective memory and considers its symbolic and visual manifestations on a
collection of artworks.

Halaka
is a visual artist, documentary filmmaker and a professor of visual art at the
University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1991.  He is currently
a Fulbright Research Scholar, as well as an affiliate scholar
at the American University of Beirut.  He is presently residing in
Lebanon, where he is developing a documentary video/oral-history/drawing project
informed by the diverse experiences of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. His
project is entitled: “Portraits of Desire and Denial.”

A selection
of Halaka’s paintings and drawings can be viewed on his website: www.johnhalaka.com

Information
about his film projects and archives of video interviews can be found on www.sittingcrowproductions.com