Team Photo of RIWAQ © RIWAQ RIWAQ
Since 1991, RIWAQ has recognised the challenging complexities of preserving Palestinian collective memory through projects that document and restore architectural heritage sites across the West Bank and Gaza. Harnessing the energy and skills of students, architects, archaeologists, and historians, RIWAQ embarked on the Registry of Historic Buildings, a thirteen year project (1994-2007) resulting in the publication of three volumes that include detailed histories, maps, and photos of approximately 420 villages in sixteen districts across the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza.
RIWAQ is distinguished by its focus on rural areas in Palestine. Founded in 1991, RIWAQ’s experience in the restoration of rural Palestine shows that there is an urgent need for community and cultural centres for marginalised groups. Since 2001 ‘Job Creation through Restoration Projects’ approved that the restoration work led to a sustainable increase in awareness of the importance of cultural heritage, and led to a higher standard of living of large segment of the population.
Because of the huge demand for these services, as well as the scarcity of human and financial resources, Riwaq has been implementing ‘The 50-Village Rehabilitation Project’. This project is a culmination of RIWAQ’s long period of work and experimentation in rehabilitating and safeguarding heritage in Palestine as a tool for socio- economic and political development.
RIWAQ’s projects are not only about job creation or about the restoration of stones and historic structure. They raise awareness about the importance of cultural heritage as a pillar for Palestinian identity and collective memory. Furthermore, they are about creating a space suitable and safe for life and work and the production and dissemination of knowledge.
Throughout its life span, RIWAQ has turned the field of heritage to a medium of thinking urgent and emergent socio-economic-cultural-political concerns. In this paradigm, the heritage becomes the field not only for knowledge production but also the field for change.
RIWAQ is a participating artist in the Framer Framed exhibition Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis curated by Mi You and David Garcia.