ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism

“Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes delighted Palestinian kids at a small Gaza zoo who had never seen a zebra in the flesh...” Reuters, 8 October 2009)

‘The Atlas of the Conflict’ by Malkit Shoshan maps the processes and mechanisms behind the shaping of Israel-Palestine over the past hundred years. It was published at the end of 2010 and used as the anchor point for a new project, ‘ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism’, which among others searches for ways to deal with the notion of transformation; a book into an exhibition, the domestic into the wild, a zoo into a house, captivity into freedom, a donkey into a zebra.

‘ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism’ starts at page number 437 of ‘The Atlas of the Conflict’ and continues into a fascinating exploration of ideas, snapshots and associations, that could be raised once seeing a white donkey tied with a rope, covered with beige tape and being transformed into a zebra by a beautiful Palestinian boy. This in order to fulfill the desire of the Gaza's for normality, which in this case means possessing a zoo as a space for urban leisure.

‘ZOO, or the letter Z, just after Zionism’, as part of a research on the relationship between architecture and war, consists of an installation, an archive, and two books:

NB: Exclusively on Saturdays and Sundays donkeys are present in the exhibition.

Photography: Johannes Schwartz

Graphic design wall posters and reader: Sandra Kassenaar and Bart de Baets

Graphic design posters and invitation: Experimental Jetset

Exhibition