Mountain Road: or a Night We Held Between

Stills from original 16mm film, archival inkjet prints,

In this photo series, inspired by the title of Tomb’s lost work, Mountain Road, Abed revisits her journey of working on her latest film, A Night We Held Between. Tomb’s title echoes Abed’s work process as well as the experience of being with and within the landscape, close to its secrets and whispers.

Abed’s production diary compiles visual and poetic notes and interweaves documentary and fictional elements. In the diary she wrote:

“..I looked down the valley. I remembered a dream of women with amputated arms walking in line. This site was waiting for me.

Clouds formed a surface. We were under sea level. I took one picture with my phone. We left.

— Wadi Qelt Valley, 27, March, 2023”

[p.18, Stars at Midday, Noor Abed]

Land is the main protagonist in Abed’s film. Shot in ancient sites in Palestine—caves, carved holes, underground passages, mountains and wild valleys – the film traverses beyond the first layer of visibility to reveal a vast, hidden world, similar to the one we know.

Noor Abed works at the intersection of performance and film. Her works create situations where social possibilities are both rehearsed and performed. Abed attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York and the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan, Lebanon. In 2020, she co-founded with Lara Khaldi the School of Intrusions, an independent educational collective in Ramallah, Palestine. Abed was an assistant curator at documenta fifteen, Germany; artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie, Netherlands; and a Han Nefkens Foundation/Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grantee.