Dima Srouji: A New Model for Excavation for AA School of Architecture

July 1, 2023

New Models is a lecture series that invites practitioners from different disciplines to discuss how their work can change the models around which society is organised. These conversations will address how we can shift power structures, socio-economic forces and structural inequalities present in society today to give us new tools to rethink the world around us.​

 

The history of archaeology in Palestine is an accomplice to furthering the apartheid state and its oppressive practices against the Palestinian land and its people. A New Model for Excavation explores alternative modes of digging that reveal hidden, censored, and erased Palestinian narratives. Turning the concept of excavation on its head, this new form of excavation collects stories, data, and evidence that can be used as material for holding ground, reclaiming the self and the collective.

 

Dima Srouji is a Palestinian architect and artist based between Ramallah and London. Her practice explores memories and data embedded in the Palestinian ground and excavates moments of potential collective repair and liberation from below. She works with glass, text, archives, maps, plaster casts, and film, understanding each as an emotional companion.