Mapping Open بيت الله
1. Outside Intervention
• Commercial Signage: On the exterior electronic utility box, a commercial poster for Mesli—a fictional brand of chips—features Declaration of Conformity, referencing fairytales of consumerism, nationalism, and standardized identity. The box also bears faded handprints from Arab children who visited Toffia more than a decade ago.
• Jewelry Shop Intervention (“I Hate Money”): In Alessandro’s shop window nearby, an installation of a bracelet made from British coins is surrounded by oranges from Jaffa—symbolizing the displacement of Palestinian currency and the tension between imperialist commerce and stolen heritage.
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2. Entrance
• Doorstep Display: A cropped photographic fragment of the Dome of the Rock (from On the Margin of Jerusalem, 2014) sits alongside a map of Palestine that was miraculously found and placed in and as a threshold. Together, they mark a sacred reentry point—part-relic, part-political map.
• كهربا - سجن النسا https://on.soundcloud.com/DKAvLVUTrMGaJQ4x6M
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3. Center Room / Mar Saba Room
• Gendered Intervention: This room references Mar Saba Monastery in Palestine and San Saba in Rome—spaces historically forbidden to women. Here, women are also symbolically excluded, but the room carries:
• A golden-toned landscape of Mar Saba, beneath a palm tree (from We Want to See the Dead Sea).
• A photograph of the artist’s mother, her back turned, in a currency exchange shop—her presence as a Muslim woman in Mar Saba reframing its gendered boundaries. Image from Philistine.
• Soundtrack: A recording of the adhan (Islamic call to prayer) sung in Italian plays ambiently, softening the symbolic dominance of church bells and inviting plural spiritualities.
• Soundtrack: A recording of a family conversation around Mesli Chips, Nablus 2024. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YbBa2B8qDjP4lujNYyhUE8l8h8swQOIL/view?usp=drivesdk
Nablus مسلي.m4a
• Soundtrack: A recording on Allenby Aparthied Bridge, 13/8/2022 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EBfA_0EtDR9Yplbkw0gcaR65P1VJYgRs/view?usp=drivesdk
عالجسر 13/8/22.m4a
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4. Main Church Interior
• Monument to Santa Anna’s Leg: A sculptural intervention rising from the vanishing interior mural. The leg—miraculously appearing in the mural—is duplicated as a prosthetic form and mapped across the Italian peninsula, referencing colonial mythologies and the 1965 return of Saint Saba’s body to Palestine after centuries of Venetian possession.
• Mesli Projection & Soundtrack: “ينعن ابوي؟” + Italian Adhan
A video projection of Mesli chips—branded with bright, excessive commercial aesthetics—casts moving light into the nave. Over it plays the sound work “ينعن ابوي؟” (Yen’an Abouy?), https://on.soundcloud.com/UCarnE3WhF09XFtuCk a fragmented reflection on gatekeeping in contemporary art education in Palestine, recorded as an imagined academy interview. This piece is paired with the Adhan sung in Italian, softening the dominance of church bells into a dissonant coexistence. It evokes the artist’s own discomfort—mesophonia—with iron-on-iron calls to prayer and colonial soundscapes, yet insists on a hybrid sonic space.
• Roman-Porn Infant Garment: On the stage beside the window looking toward the outside chip poster and jewelry shop, a baby’s clothing imprinted with a Romanian-themed gay porn image creates tension between innocence and representation, tradition and exposure.
• QR Catalog: A QR code links to the digital catalog Selling the Medina Temple, placed discreetly on the altar platform, referencing the commodification of sanctity.
• Framed Pages: Selected spreads from Where the West Begins are framed and placed around the nave, highlighting visual excerpts of orientalist fantasy and geopolitical critique.
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5. Cave Studio (Officina Creativa No. 33)
• Female Wanted (Shatila, Mediterranean Photo Series): A photograph of a woman’s face on a wall in Shatila Camp is installed on one wall, silently confronting viewers with presence and erasure.
• Deconsecrated Printer Installation: An old digital printer, now rendered holy, sits beside a large found poster, accompanied by prints from The Four Non-Western Aliens—specifically referencing the Japanese figure—creating a fragmented narrative of surveillance, identity, and resistance.
• Gay Corruption Fairy Tales No 1 - Nashville Link to audio 55:13 minutes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iLxp8jyw4RRPzXY6f3cwJyxfbjw4sp1H/view?usp=drivesdk
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6. Kitchen
• Cheese Conceptual Piece (Homage to Joseph Kosuth):
• Toffia’s local caperino cheeses at three intervals: 48, and 23 hours old.
• Next to the current plate sits a dictionary-style framed definition of each cheese.
• The descriptions are sung collectively as an anthem by Toffia’s music school, turning aging and locality into performative ritual.
• Photographs from On the Margins of Jerusalem (2014).
• Image from Philistine.
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7. Archivo / Bedroom (Clothes Closet)
• Custom-Labeled T-Shirts: 4–5 shirts hang in the closet, each bearing custom text. One references Abbraccia Roma and Achille Lauro – Viaggio nel Terrore.
• Hadrian Memoir Fragmentation: Torn pages from Memoirs of Hadrian and Il Giallo carry participants’ handwritten names of favorite Italian artists—these texts blur queer memory, classical legacy, and collective authorship.
• Incorporating olive branches or local earth pigments can ground the work in the natural rhythms and cycles of the area. Recently hijacked olive branches from Hadrian’s Villa.
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8. Rooftop
• Miraculous Mural Light Source: The sun that once faded the church’s internal mural is tracked and reinterpreted as the source of its resurrection.
• Documentation: Photographs show the mural “reappearing” on the walls of the artist’s apartment in Boston—transferred via window light and cultural hauntings.
• Flags and Boats (Portuguese Echo): Deconsecrated Portuguese flags and boats surround the rooftop. The concept draws from A Máquina do Mundo (1498), projecting global navigations, imperial detours, and reorientation of lost spiritual architectures.
