This project contends with the long arc of Italian and Western European interventions in Palestine—spiritual, political, and symbolic. From the Crusader-era theft of Saint Saba’s body from the Mar Saba monastery to Rome, to more recent entanglements in cultural tourism and ecclesiastical diplomacy, the Holy Land has been repeatedly hijacked under the guise of reverence. These acts, often framed as preservation or pilgrimage, functioned as tools of possession—extracting bodies, relics, and symbols from their local contexts to serve foreign imaginations.
Italy’s failure is not only historical, but aesthetic and ethical. The baroque romanticism applied to the region has softened the violence of occupation and obscured the political realities on the ground. In parallel, the United States—while posturing as neutral—reinforces these failures by offering political cover and military aid to the Zionist state, accelerating the erasure of Palestinian life and sovereignty. Their cowardice lies in rhetorical diplomacy, while they enable high-tech colonialism.
In Open بيت الله, these legacies are confronted not with monuments of victory but with fragments, echoes, misalignments, and reimaginings. This is not a return, nor a restoration, but a deliberate misplacement—a performance of presence in the face of systemic absence.
Italy’s failure is not only historical, but aesthetic and ethical. The baroque romanticism applied to the region has softened the violence of occupation and obscured the political realities on the ground. In parallel, the United States—while posturing as neutral—reinforces these failures by offering political cover and military aid to the Zionist state, accelerating the erasure of Palestinian life and sovereignty. Their cowardice lies in rhetorical diplomacy, while they enable high-tech colonialism.
In Open بيت الله, these legacies are confronted not with monuments of victory but with fragments, echoes, misalignments, and reimaginings. This is not a return, nor a restoration, but a deliberate misplacement—a performance of presence in the face of systemic absence.
