The title of the project is: The town as a production unit in which two main elements will combine; a series of physical interventions in the historic centers of these towns (planning, restoration works, creation of public spaces, infrastructure, landscaping ...), and other soft components that include a cultural program within these centers and a research project. Riwaq had articulated his research component around the theme of mutualism and parasitism, in an attempt to dismantle the binary center-periphery system to understand the relationship between Jerusalem and its surroundings. Through this approach, we will analyze the flows of materials, products, labor, knowledge, imaginaries and practices, and try to redraw a map of "exchanges and reciprocities".

In light of what has just been said, and during the residency, we will explore one of the Life Jacket villages, Al Jib, and re-imagine it as a holistic production unit. We will examine the relationships of mutual dependency and exchange flows between Al Jib and other communities (including Jerusalem, nearby villages, and Israeli settlements built on their land), through production processes: production of labor, material and knowledge. While the concept of exchange can easily be placed within a socio-economic domain, we are also interested in investigating these relationships within the processes of cultural production in the Jerusalem area. During this month, we will focus on collecting personal narratives that can help us create our initial flow map. These narratives can be testimonies, stories, memories, videos and images, shared by historians, collectors, artisans, farmers and residents inside and outside of Al Jib. This work will be paralleled by a series of oral history sessions that take place over nearly a year and archival research that needs to be further developed in light of the research approach.