this land must be created in the air since it cannot exist on the ground

The visitors of the installation this land must be created in the air since it cannot exist on the ground could see a large photograph of an aircraft. On a closer look they would discover the aircraft is obviously defunct, the engines are seemingly missing and there is an entry into the aircraft at a very unusual place above a wing. Furthermore the soil hints that the plane is not on an airfield. The mood of the photograph is mysterious underlined by the look like the early Hollywood films that were shot broad daylight but they underexposed the stock to emulate the darkness of the night.

At a certain moment during the opening the visitors are invited to chose one of the 30 parts that makes up the photograph. By gradually taking away part of the photograph of the airplane it shows that it covered another picture lying beneath. The visitors engage actively on the dissolution of an image to uncover another one and they are enchanted that they are treated with 'real' art.

The new appearing photograph shows a quarry in which big cut big lime stone blocks are waiting to be carried away. This type of lime stone is called the 'white gold of Palestine' and is used today in building industry. But this mining is causing huge losses as well as a whole topography is changed. Where once olives were harvested the excess lime stone debris is deposed. Beside the catastrophic ecology of this way of mining a memory of this landscape is erased. The double loss of what was shaped during many thousand years is literally turned upside down within a short period of time.

Both images were taken in a region that is known under names like Palestine, Samaria, West Bank, Occupied Territories or Holy Land. Today all these names point towards times in history and the many rulers that held this land for a longer or shorter amount of time.

The installation's title refers to a quote that two times plane hijacker Leila Khaled is reported to have said to a journalist. My first knowledge of the Israel/Palestine conflict came from a time when the airplanes were abducted in the name of Palestinians. The images for these events we all got through the media. It was a turn of eras. But by being on the ground the reported lines of conflict start to blur. New lines start to take their place. A new reality emerges. Images are projections. How do they change – including the ones we have ourselves and the ones that a society has? Typically this means that one reality may exist another one has to fade.