عريب طوقان oraib toukan
The New(er) Middle East, 2007
Interactive installation; foam, magnet, iron; dimensions variable
The New(er) Middle East is an interactive puzzle that engages the public to re-assemble a territorial map of the Middle East made from suspended foam-magnet bits. The bits are fragments of the region's actual nation states. The work is a play on the so-called ‘New Middle East Map’ a plan that has been frantically distributed in various conspiracy theory circles and in some mainstream media since its inception in June 2006. The map was originally suggested by retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters, as his ‘proposition’ of ‘how a better Middle East would look.’ The puzzle was cut by overlapping his proposed map of the Middle East with the current, post World-War-II, map of the area.
The installation amusingly re-ignites the fabrication of conspiracy theories by enabling people to draw and redraw the synthetic borders of an area of the world already fluidly conglomerated in to an entity entitled ‘The Middle East.’ Creating a puzzle out of this conspiracy theory specifically came about after stumbling upon a scientific reference to ‘Memory’ as ‘the ability of a material to return to its original shape after being subject to deformation.’
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