Palestine

ARTICLE: NO, IT’S NOT “JUST A GAME”

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

〰️

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…

(continues)

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

This is a Patreon exclusive content. For full access consider joining our growing community.

EVENT: FIRAS SHEHADEH (SEPTEMBER 8 - 21 2023, ONLINE)

Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal

Single-channel video (color, sound, narrator: Mamusu Kallon), 14’ 19”, 2023, Palestine

Created by Firas Shehadeh

Part of Shehadeh’s ongoing research into video games and Palestinian youth culture, Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal combines found-footage of Twitch streamers and custom game mods for Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games, 2013). Unpacking video game mods as a form of contemporary archive — and therefore digitizing historic and contemporary architectural sites in addition to seemingly ubiquitous objects — the artwork proposes Los Santos, a virtual replica of Los Angeles, as the biblical “land of milk and honey”.

Firas Shehadeh is a Palestinian artist and researcher exploring issues of identity, meaning, and aesthetics in the digital age. Currently based in Vienna, his interdisciplinary practice engages with post-colonial effects, technology, and history through the lens of worldbuilding and internet culture. Shehadeh holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he is currently a PhD candidate. His education also includes studies in conceptual art, video, and architecture in Vienna, Barcelona, and Amman. Investigating topics like colonial legacies, memory, and belonging, Shehadeh creates speculative narratives that reveal unseen structures and realities. His research-focused practice utilizes and subverts the visual languages of new media, examining how technology transforms society’s relationship with knowledge and power. His work, which has been exhibited internationally, offers a critical perspective on the role of the internet and digital imaging in shaping contemporary identities, histories, and ways of world-making.