Darat al Funun is a wonderful art gallery in Amman, Jordan. It’s built on the site of an ancient Greek altar to Hercules (you can still see it), the ruins of a 6th century Byzantine church, and the compound of Ottoman administrators. Today it’s an art museum featuring contemporary Arabic art and rotating exhibits on social issues. Set into one of Amman’s seven hills, the location is beautiful and haunting. While visiting in May, 2022 I was particularly struck by their exhibit “Re-rooting.” While I’ve been involved in conservation and environmental issues at various times in my life, this exhibit presented information that was new to me and gave me another perspective on the mess created by the human need for endless profit at the expense of everything else. Knowing the exhibit would never get to America, I photographed some of it and present it here as a way to share the information. At the end of this post is a link to the web page at Darat al Funum with all the artists’ names and further info.
This is the mid level of the compound with the galleries for rotating exhibits. The bowls of hay are symbolic of the loss of connection between the community and the animals that feed us.
This is one of the galleries for Re-rooting.
I can’t reproduce the entire show here such as the videos, which included an interview with an elder making bread in the traditional way. The story of wheat and bread in Jordan is one aspect of Re-rooting. In the other galleries were presentations on other agricultural/political topics. I do want to include something that I found fascinating – the display on Jaffa oranges. It explains the real reason why the British empire stuck its greedy nose into Palestine in the first place. It turns out the answer is citrus fruit. In the 1800s the British navy ruled the seas and to do so before refrigeration, etc. it needed citrus fruits to prevent scurvy in its sailors.
For more information on the exhibit, see https://daratalfunun.org/?event=re-rooting