Between 2007 and 2010, Assaf Shoshan made three videos as part of his Waiting Territories series, presented today as a triptych. These long static shots (Shoshan calls them “filmed photographs”) all stand as allegories of an obstacle. Each in its own way lays bare some of the frontiers dividing the contemporary world. Together, they work as a non-didactic analysis of the visible and invisible barriers faced by certain minorities in the Middle East. These static shots — in which something never quite manages to happen — evoke, without pathos, the impasses faced by certain groups, but also by people in general. Shoshan makes manifest the helplessness of the weakest populations, but also questions our own, all the while, just below the surface, quietly asking how these deadlocks can be broken.

Taaban shows an arid valley, under a bright sky and the rays of a hot sun, Taaban, head held high, runs. Little by little, fatigue becomes visible on his face. Beads of sweat, effort and tiredness appear. The sun goes down, night falls. Taaban runs. And runs. Winds himself, exhausts himself. And, yet, never moves forward. A poignant contemporary Sisyphus, his immobile run becomes a physical manifestation of the tragic condition of those Sudanese refugees who arrived in Israel via Egypt, often at the risk of their lives. The video was filmed a few kilometres away from where Taaban managed to pass through the frontier.