Output details

‘Face Scripting : What did the building see?’

Film installation, single screen, dur 12min,

Brief Description

Film installation, duration (12 min) comprised of a single screen projection, 2 mirrors, gauze box and suspended monitor. The suspended monitor screened simultaneously the Youtube film made from CCTV by the Dubai state police. The installation was inspired by the events that took place in the Al Bustan Rotanna Hotel in Dubai, January 2010: the assassination of a Hamas operative, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, by Israeli Mossad operatives on stolen identities and assumed aliases. The film was exhibited as part of Sharjah Biennial 2011.

Research Rationale

The method of assassination and the mode of investigation mirrored each other. Whilst previous of our works show human involvement in an otherwise empty scene, Face Scripting does the opposite, and asks: what does the building witness?

Methodologies used

We used analogue camouflage in the form of face painting, to confuse and disguise the face from the CCTV, reproducing patterns of primitive masks, which begin to merge with the building. This use of dazzle camouflage in the form of face painting is known to hamper facial recognition software,

The film installation was shot using specialist lenses, resulting in images of extreme close-up and magnification. The interiors of hotels, corridors, revolving doors, elevators, an abandoned tennis court at night, all become an image of an architecture that is forensic.

We travelled to Dubai, stayed one night in the Rotanna Al Bustan hotel and filmed covertly inside room 230 where the assassination took place, and shot hotel exteriors in Sharjah, where we had permission. We then assimilated the footage back in London to create a continuous architecture. The voice over was delivered by Nadim Sawalha the esteemed Jordanian actor. The text was based on an article, ‘Assassinations in Junk Space’ by Eyal Weizman.