The 17th International Architecture Exhibition - installation "Border Ecologies And The Gaza Strip”

BGUK_2132690 - Malkit Shoshan, author of the installation "Border Ecologies And The Gaza Strip" From Gaza to Chile, the Biennale asks how we will live together VENICE, Italy - In the time it took to prepare for the Venice Biennale, violence in the Middle East overtook a Palestinian family farm in Gaza, featured in one of the exhibitions. It gives urgency in real time to the question posed by the curator of the Biennale: "How will we live together?" The 17th International Architecture Exhibition opens Saturday after a year of pandemic delay, during which architecture has emerged as one of the key disciplines in the global response to the coronavirus. A Border Ecologies and the Gaza Strip exhibit looks at how Israeli border control affects the Qudaih family's farm in Gaza's Khuza'a village. He says, for example, that 20 olive trees of the Qudaih family were demolished to create a buffer zone and a greenhouse necessary for growing tomatoes was repeatedly destroyed. Since 2014, the village has been "more or less" quiet, said curator Malkit Shoshan. But as he prepared for the opening of the Biennale, violence erupted again. The farm, near the border fence, was destroyed by bombs and the family are taking refuge in their home, which was damaged by the grenades, about a mile away, said one of the sons, Amir Qudaih, who lives in the country. United States and who helped put the show together. Qudaih, a 27-year-old recent engineering graduate, was supposed to be in Venice for the inauguration. But he said he is too distressed by the bombing and uncertainty about his family's safety to travel. Communications are unpredictable due to electricity and internet outages and his last contact was earlier in the week. "My family can no longer access the farm because it is very close to the border and no one can leave the house. They are running out of food," which mostly comes from the farm, Qudaih told the phone. "Every time I write or call, it could be the last call because things are happening 24/7. It's very stressful."