Minor Inscriptions , 2025, 15 min 16 sec
Minor Inscriptions investigates the invisible borders imposed by martial law in Jaffa between 1948 and 1950. Using archival documents, maps, testimonies, and video fragments, the work traces boundaries that have vanished physically yet remain embedded in current spatial, technological, and political infrastructures, actively shaping the present.
The work focuses on “bureaucratic violence”: a system of control based on the administrative regulation of movement and access, where every passage through the city requires permits. How can violence operate through administrative practices like numbered lists and statistical databases?
The work takes place on a desk and filmed from above – the overhead view often associated with a position of authority. Documents, maps, physical objects and mobile screens are arranged across the desk. A multilayered editing of photos, videos, and images creates a dynamic and timeless map of Jaffa/Yafa, where freedom of movement is managed capriciously and the physical and symbolical borders remain palpable, even if they are invisible. The permits, checkpoints, and detainments did not go anywhere, they only took on a different shape.
Although martial law officially ended, its logic persists, continuing to structure contemporary urban life.