Nisrine Boukhari

http://www.nisrineboukhari.weebly.com/

PRECARIOUS RESIDENCY: SYRIAN

Nisrine Boukhari, whose name testifies to her origins in Uzbekistan - her family left in 1922 as Uzbekistan became a Soviet Republic, and now resides in Syria - arrived at Omi in the middle of the night after a prolonged questioning by the INS, to which she is subjected every time she crosses W-borders: at airports in Paris, London, Amsterdam, and New York. Syrian residency implies more borders than most - not only in the air, but also in virtual space, where entries on Facebook, weebly, and other servers are selectively blocked because of the origin of their api addresses. The web address above has been kept active only after a case-by-case review by the administrators.

If bodies can be traced to their origins, their simulations can easily be transmitted from elsewhere. Nisrine was invited to participate in Al Mahatta, 1st International Artists' Residency in Ramallah in October 2009.

 Nisrine was the first Syrian to be able to take a residency in Ramallah, albeit virtually from London, from where she communicated via the Internet with other resident artists and relayed the production of her work in situ. On her studio floor, she wrote and then erased with her feet the phrase in Arabic, "In-between here and there, in between nowhere."

If anyone has a better translation from Arabic, please contribute:

Boukhari sisters run a contemporary art space and artists' residency in this beautiful old house in Damascus:

 Say to the people, Alhamdulillah!