This week apexart will open the final Franchise Exhibition of the 2013–14 season in Ramallah, Palestine: UHF42, organized by Mike Crane.

UHF42 is a month-long screening series broadcast through the live frequency of Wattan, an independent television station based in Ramallah, Palestine. The program showcases 20 recent works by local and international artists, with a single screening taking place each weekday after the station’s regularly scheduled news program on local television and streaming online. The screenings feature a brief introduction by one of the station’s daily news anchors. Wattan has been raided twice and had its frequency shut down five times, by both Palestinian and Israeli authorities, since it was first established through the telecommunications agreement of the Oslo 2 Accords in 1996. The station continues to provide daily coverage of education, politics, culture, and sports, despite undergoing a destructive raid in February 2012.

The films in this program resonate with Wattan’s syndication through their respective use of cinematic and televisual modes of production, which range from documentation of political events, interviews and geographic settings to fictional depictions of historical figures and athletic exercises. These works have been selected based on recommendations by local artists and filmmakers who are familiar with Wattan and it’s programming. Each film will feature a brief introduction by Wattan’s daily news anchor. The goal of this series is to initiate an ongoing program of artist film and video work on Palestinian TV. UHF42 employs Palestine’s first independent frequency as an exhibition platform to engage with the moving-images being produced in the region today, drawing upon the vitality of the television medium under precarious circumstances.

Featuring work by Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Basma Alsharif, Ayman Alazraq, Knut Asdam, Nasrin Abu Baker, Kaya Behkalam, Neil Beloufa, Nicholas Brooks, Karen Mirza & Brad Butler, Phil Collins, Fahed Halabi & Ala Farhat, Ihab Jadallah, Yazan Khalili, Alexander Kluge, Jumana Manna & Sille Storihle, Melanie Manchot, Mohammed Musallam, Peter Snowdon, and Stefanos Tsivopoulos

Organized by: Mike Crane

Opening Reception:
Thursday, May 29: 6-8 pm

Location:
Wattan TV
PARC building
Al-Ma’ahid Street
Ramallah, Palestine

apexart.org/exhibitions/crane.php