Jerusalem, which has been disputed for five thousand years, is located in the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is a city of identity, rather than the place where the game actually happens; but nobody is willing to give up this place, which is forever linked to their identity. Manipulation of archeology is one of many strategies of geopolitical control. Perhaps the most striking example of this is the Givati Parking Lot, just a few hundred meters from the Wailing Wall, but already in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. A huge visitor center and Bible museum is being planned on this archaeological site, still under excavation. It will obliterate everything that existed there before. My project follows the spontaneous flora: a wooden walkway runs along the movement lines, and becomes a wide ramp obliquely crossing the layers of history, hosting archaeological finds discovered in the Givati. I chose to design a space that welcomes the large fluxes of tourists and transforms them into fluxes of travelers who are aware of the complexity of the place they are about to enter. Both Jerusalem’s past and present are being bent to a narrative that is so blind it actually corrupts its own identity in order to erase others. I wanted to give back to Silwan part of the stolen space and offer an alternative solution, at least until a new project comes to light, that the present and the past of Jerusalem are bent to a narrative blind to the point of wanting to corrupt its identity in order to erase others.
www.giovannaceleghin.it
Giovanna Lorenza Celeghin graduated with honours in Architecture in October 2014 from Iuav University of Venice, Italy. She attended Piranesi International Itinerant Master in Museography by Accademia Adrianea after winning the first prize in the International Student Prize Piranesi Prix de Rome. Her thesis "Jerusalem among People", proposing a temporary design for a conflicted archeological area in East Jerusalem, won the honourable mention at the national competition Archiprix Italia 2015. She is currently living and working in London.
