VRAL is currently showcasing Firas Shehadeh’s Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal (2023). To contextualize his work, we are looking at some of his most significant projects. Today we examine his 2013 multimedia project Guerrilla 8-bit.
PATREON-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
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PATREON-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT 〰️
In a thought–provoking blend of historical narrative and video game aesthetics, Firas Shehadeh’s Guerrilla 8-bit showcases in a nuanced, perhaps counterintuitive style the parallel evolutions of two seminal yet apparently disconnected events: the formation of the Black September Organization (BSO) and the birth of 8-bit computing. Conceived in 2013, this brief yet impactful video installation – clocking at one minute and forty-seven seconds – is augmented by a series of digital prints that beckon viewers to reevaluate the intricate relationship between technological and socio-political upheavals.
The BSO, which emerged in the waning years of the 1960s, was a militant collective committed to the liberation of Palestine. Composed of an undefined number of libertarian fighters hailing from Palestine and beyond, the organization aimed not merely to free their homeland but also to protect refugees and internationalize the Palestinian cause.
Coinciding with this socio-political ferment was the advent of 8–bit computer processors, a technological milestone that would later serve as the catalyst for a worldwide digital revolution. Guerrilla 8-bit ingeniously unites these seemingly disparate timelines, employing 8-bit technology as a medium to reexamine…
Matteo Bittanti
Work cited
Firas Shehadeh
Guerrilla 8-bit, digital video (4:3), color, sound. 1' 47", series of digital prints, 2013, Palestine
All images and videos courtesy of the Artist
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