Art Metropole

#14269

The Iblis, the Girl, the Sultan and the Lion’s Tail

Writer

Elham Rokni

Date

2018

Publisher

Sternthal Books

Format

Anthologies

ISBN

978-1-988689-02-9

Size

15 × 21 cm

Length

232 pp

Genre

History, Activism, Fiction

The Iblis, The Girl, The Sultan, and The Lion’s Tail is a collection of eighteen folktales collected from Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers who have sought refuge in Israel over the past decade, alongside drawings which Rokni created responsively. The eighteen folktales have been registered in The Israel Folktales Archive (IFA), established in 1955, with the goal of documenting and studying various mythologies and narratives passed down amongst newly arrived immigrants. The book is published in English, Hebrew, Tigirinya, and Arabic, and in light of the current political realities, 20 percent from all proceeds will be donated to various NGO’S and civil initiatives which are engaged in helping protect the Refugee community.

The book engages in a double artistic gesture: while the refugees continue to be defamed by Israeli society as a pretext for their impending expulsion, Rokni both highlights their cultural contributions and affirms their ‘appartenance’ to Israeli society. As an immigrant herself, who arrived in Israel at the age of nine, the book continues her own focus on cultural memory, particularly as regards the memory of immigrants, and the political function of remembering in the construction of their hybrid identities. Through this complex series of actions, Rokni has created a book that simultaneously functions as educational and political tool, as well as an artist book.

Softcover, colour.