The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

48 that breed jihadist sentiment in the contemporary Arab world. Living in the poor Jordanian neighbourhood once shared by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader killed in 2006 by US forces in Iraq, Amar discusses faith and hope in Islam in the face of poverty and radical religious doctrine. While political and colonial legacies have divided land and communities, Promised Lands points to the aspirations of artists and filmmakers to reframe these struggles and find a path forward. The program brings together works that project possibilities for change and explore the hopes of exiled and dispossessed communities to return to, or create, a homeland. The artists and filmmakers featured in Promised Lands provide extraordinary insights into complex contemporary situations, and work in myriad ways to counter the insidious effects of cultural homogenisation. Their individual narratives offer a depth of understanding rarely available in official histories and suggest new possibilities for relationships and understanding. The past and present in the first person take discussions of the future out of the realm of rhetoric and into a shared framework of responsibility. When Larissa Sansour raises a Palestinian flag on the moon in her video A Space Exodus 2008, she employs a fantastical mode which carries with it the understanding that a torn social fabric can be reshaped through a sense of community and possibility. Yael Bartana Israel b.1970 Production still from A Declaration 2006 / Digital video, colour, stereo, 7:30 minutes, Israel / Image courtesy: The artist and Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam Larissa Sansour Israel b.1973 Production still from A Space Exodus 2008 / HD video, colour, Dolby SR, 5:24 minutes, Denmark, English / Image courtesy: The artist and Le Galerie La B.A.N.K, Paris