Narcisse Tordoir
'The absent present’ is the name of the Israeli property law allowing confiscation of land 'abandoned' by previous (Palestinian) occupants.
The work The absent present is a collaboration between Narcisse Tordoir and James Beckett. And although Narcisse Tordoir does not wish to make overt public pronouncements, this piece is indeed politically charged and shows an everyday fait divers-tale from Palestine. The representation depicts a Palestinian woman with a cart of fruit and vegetables on the way to the market. The knowledge that the woman, for no valid reason, is detained at a border control post for three days of interrogation by Israeli soldiers, her goods completely gone rotting in the meantime, allows the viewer to assign a subjective judgment to the work. The bitter atmosphere of the piece is underlined by the musical composition made by James Beckett, using the grating sound of the installation's door to great effect.