Oraib Toukan

Oraib Toukan is a Palestinian Jordanian artist primarily working in photography, video, and installation.   Known for her socio-political content she has received two regional awards and various international fellowships and residency placements including the Pro Helvetia grant in Aarau, Switzerland, the Arab-African Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, a FCC grant at the Speos Institute of Photography in Paris, and ART OMI in New York among others.   Her works have been shown widely in Europe and the Middle East and increasingly works in public interventions and action art.   Oraib has founded various community youth programs that promote the use of video and photography in story telling.   She lives and works out of Amman and Beirut.

"Remind Me to Remember to Forget"

'Remind Me to Remember to Forget', 2",50', is a simple literal account of meaning and word. It plays on the idea of a Middle Eastern genetic memory made to forget, using connections of cocaine and breath under siege.

The video was produced in New York the first few days of the Israeli siege of Lebanon.   Under the influence of ridiculous US news coverage of the war, the phrase 'remind me to remember to forget' was written and re-written on walls, till it was formalized in to a video.   In a two channel split screen installation, the use of red white and blue are ridiculed on one half of the screen and a stifling reality represented in the other.