Translator: Elise LECAMP Reviewer: Denise RQ
Kenza Aloui: Not long ago, Ines and I were invited
to another conference in Paris.
The conference had much less people in the audience.
I would say about 10 times less people than this one.
At this conference, we were both introduced as ...
Hold on ...
a "duo for peace".
Just like one would try to make a conditioner
or a vanilla indoor fragance more marketable.
Inès Weill-Rochant: Yes.
It wasn’t the first time we faced that kind of pigeonholing.
We are often introduced as Israeli and Palestinian,
in that order, of course.
I reckon, it's tempting.
It is an easy simplification and an easy sell, we get it,
but a false assumption.
My name is Inès.
I grew up in Jerusalem,
I lived on the Israeli side
and went to primary, secondary, and high school
with Palestinians.
On paper, I am neither Israeli nor Palestinian, I am French.
But beyond documentation, I am from Jerusalem,
with all that it means,
Holy 3 times, identity issues, therapy, and on the [TEDx] stage.
KA: In some ways, [TEDx] is like couples therapy,
we are aware of that.
And today, it's our last session,
and we are sharing it with you.
I am Kenza,
I was born on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea,
on the same side as Inès,
but I grew up in Rabat, in Morocco,
and I got into this quagmire much later,
at age 20, when I spent my year abroad in Tel Aviv.
I never really recovered,
I will try to explain why tonight.
IWR: Since we started working together,
given the fact that we are two women, that we are young,
and as we smile a lot, it's true,
we are seen as cute, soft and pretty,
and naively blossoming even!
You thought about it!
When you saw us, coming on stage,
two young women coming on stage,
and that’s OK, we hear it really often.
KA: It happens so often that we are not holding it against you,
because Ines and Kenza translates to either Jewish and Muslim,
or the classic Peace and Love,
or the famous 'vivre ensemble',
Very trendy the 'vivre ensemble' lately.
or The Kooples, Inès and Kenza in a relationship for 2 years.
Don't be disappointed, it's false.
There are topics,
such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for example,
when we are very tempted to use these binary terms
because it is reassuring
and it allows us not to confront the complexity of reality
- it feels good sometimes -
it allows us to simplify it.
KA: This is why many times,
words are coupled up, not our fault:
war and peace, fair and unfair,
hope and despair,
coupled up words that frames thinking,
and makes it difficult to think outside the box.
IWR: You might have understood by now, we love danger,
therefore we created a space
very hostile to certainties.
We even made it our job eventually,
not by putting together a peace process but an offbeat festival.
KA: Our story together, the real one,
is starting to age.
We met in 2007, we were 18,
and we were studying at Sciences Po.
Strangely enough, we started being close
when we were living far from each other,
during our semester abroad
I in Tel Aviv and Ines in Cairo.
IWR: We would talk on Skype.
We had our own Tel Aviv Cairo liaison,
we might have been bugged, but not to worry,
our topics of conversation were not the least bit political.
After our year abroad, we came back to Paris for our masters degree,
and as dedicated students, we went to conferences on this topic.
We realized, like you for sure,
that political debates and academic ones
were mainly dogmatic and too repetitive.
KA: When we came back to France, we were shocked
by all the very intense mental blocks that the conflict brought around us,
and beyond,
by all the deep ramifications it had in France
and that we had maybe underestimated them.
IWR: We realized
that the debates we were listening to made public trending
"pro Israeli" or "pro Palestinian"
never leave their comfort zone, comfort zone we all have.
KA: Today these categories mean everything and nothing at the same time.
The people, described as "pro-Israeli" or "pro-Palestinian"
rarely meet in Paris.
IWR: We proceeded to do a short survey,
and we identified 3 different positions when the topic is brought up.
KA: The first one, one of my favorites,
includes people who have a solution to all the world’s issues,
a very simple solution, that would always work: theirs.
It works everytime.
IWR: There is a category I like:
the one with people in denial,
who do not want to face reality
a reality too ugly,
and it would lead to questioning,
I call this the 'burying-our-heads-in-the-sand' method
or the manly method.
Sorry guys.
(Laughter)
And last but not least, people who are not interested at all in the topic,
who choose to leave it, because it is too complicated,
don't see any way out,
so they stop.
IR: Starting from there - we couldn't stop here, of course -
we decided to create something raw and human,
with no senseless debates.
KA: While talking to artists,
going to the movies, visiting museums,
being close to the artistic content
we realized it was more interesting, and making a bigger impact
compared to all the mumbo jumbo we had to listen to,
but once again in Paris,
the public who showed up had a deeper knowledge of the situation.
IR: We also understood that art was less bombastic,
and allows to talk about eclectic and sensitive topics.
KA: In July 2013, we had a deal,
we decided not to accept any full time position,
that was the easy part,
our generation inherited a terrible job market.
IWR: Right now, our families are freaking out.
KA: The second part of our deal was to not have any plan B,
so that we would be fully and only focused
on plan A, the festival.
IWR: In august 2013, we pitched our idea to our parents,
a very important step,
They thought we lost our minds,
we were supposed to become diplomates or journalists,
and we choose art as a way
to reroute the classic political approach,
but let's face it, that career was not meant for us, that's it.
KA: We stayed strong and in September 2013,
in one night and with a joint effort, using a Google doc,
we found the name of our festival,
we wrote our festival's manifesto,
and in the following weeks,
we started contacting artists on Facebook, with no money or venue.
In December 2013,
after being rejected by almost all the Parisian venues -
IWR: Yes.
KA: Our dream venue, the Bellevilloise, said yes,
and gave us our first date.
IWR: To get funding, we started a crowdfunding campaign
because we needed funding for this festival.
We cashcowed our friends,
we also asked them to edit our video -
to help us shoot it - and ask them also for donations.
Regarding the logistics, we did as we could,
artists played along, and we thank them for this.
We are thinking about a famous pianist who accepted to come to our festival.
We thought,
"We could ask him to play my electric piano,
to not go over our budget."
He said no to the idea and brought his own piano,
he even came back this year.
KA: For budgetary reasons,
we also booked the worst flights
with the worst layovers for all the artists,
and when they finally arrived to Paris,
there was no cosy hotel waiting for them,
we were lending them our own apartments.
After all these mishaps,
they always happen,
on May 24th 2014, around 2:10 pm,
the first IsraeliPalestinian art festival was born,
independent and free in Paris: Off the Wall Pilgrimage.
KA: You did not forget a thing! Good job!
IWR: Yes, I didn’t forget anything. KA: Right on.
Of course, we knew that we were on a very dangerous territory,
maybe the most slippery.
Part of our endeavor was to provoke.
You probably guessed that.
A lot of stress.
I think we reached a peek today.
IWR: Yeah we are doing pretty good right now!
KA: I think we could not be better.
Either because we are stubborn or determined, we will let you choose,
we wanted to make our vision reality.
IWR: This festival is two days of eclectic artistic performances,
30 artists from Israel and Palestine, who visit Paris for two days.
KA: This festival has been created intuitively and subjectively,
and we own up to this subjectivity.
It is the result of stories, ambitions, real life situations and dreams
from a disillusioned generation, still dreaming despite everything.
This festival is not a contemplative art,
it is the kind of art that becomes an experience,
told through the perspective of artists who come with their background
and their life in Paris, to meet the Parisian audience.
KA: This festival is an intense two-day experience
that leaves nobody indifferent,
and we would really like the people who are against the festival
by principle, whatever this principle is,
to come and see what it is really about.
IWR: The festival is a space of freedom, and that is important,
it is financially and politically independent.
It is not a festival to make peace,
and we are not asking the artists to love each other
and go back to their reality; no.
KA: The festival is not a solution to a conflict lasting for decades.
It never pretended to be one.
It will never be.
It is a festival that asks more questions than it brings answers.
IWR: Last confession,
a friend of ours told us
that our stand was very Camus-like,
and that's why this festival was not
sadly desperate or stupidly naive.
KA: When we accept this space between hope, despair,
war and peace, and other things
there are three reactions that Camus considered useful:
revolt, freedom, and passion.
IWR: This festival did not change the world,
but the festival itself changed, grew,
and attracted more people.
This festival will become nomadic. It's a pilgrimage after all.
The pilgrimage will visit different cities: London, New York,
Brussels, and others,
and always, always,
with revolt, freedom, and passion.
Thank you
(Applause)