Oh shining star testify explores how real events are documented but just as easily removed from the public sphere if we disagree on their meaning or if there’s a wish to forget them. This multichannel video installation grew out of footage from an Israeli military surveillance camera, which was then interwoven with Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s own films. In 2014, Yusuf Shawamreh crossed the fence erected near Hebron that separated his family’s farmland to pick akub, an edible plant. Considered a delicacy in Palestinian cuisine, it grows in high mountainous areas and only blooms for a short period. After Shawamreh crossed the fence, he was ambushed and fatally shot by the Israeli army. A legal injunction released the military surveillance footage, which circulated for a short period on the Internet before being removed. The piece was shown in the artist duo’s exhibition at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in 2023 and is now part of the museum’s collection.

Abbas and Abou-Rahme are part of the Palestinian diaspora. They live and work in Ramallah and New York, and are known for their exploration of memory, resistance, and the ways that different societies engage with the consequences of oppressive political systems.

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