with Lerato Shelekisko.
2021 on the streets of Vienna. Durational performance.

Hummus in Arabic means ‘chickpea.’ Although hummus has been present since the 13th century, its actual origin is hard to trace. Hummus is said to be one of the oldest known cooked dishes in several folklore tales. Walking around the streets of Jerusalem, one might come across typical Palestinian hummus, or typical Lebanese hummus, or typical Israeli hummus.

Humus in Latin means ‘soil’.
The cultural claim about the origins and belonging of hummus is a metaphor for what is happening to that disputed land. A frenetic competition to discover who arrived first. In this performance, the artists sell a fictitious brand of hummus. Passerby are invited to taste two “different sorts”. The main intention of the work is to get the audience to ask: “what is the difference?”.

The audience will question something that is often disregarded on a daily basis, namely the usage of words, through a direct encounter with their senses. This performance invites passersby to reflect on how the lines drawn on maps, the words we choose, and our visceral sensations continuously influence one another. It highlights how these intertwined elements shape — and often distort — our understanding of conflicts. Through this entanglement, the performance reveals the intangible forces that structure political and emotional boundaries.