Der vierte Pol

In contrast to Mount Everest, the highest point on earth and sometimes referred to as the Third Pole, the Fourth Pole is the lowest continental point. In its present form, it was created only in the recent past by the steady decline of the Dead Sea and is located in the West Bank in Palestine —a terrain that is shaped like no other by decades of political struggles between religions and countries. The expedition shifts the biased perspective onto this terrain by declaring the region a Pole and, in so doing, it opens an imaginary space that is not so much defined by national co- ordinates as by topographical and autobiographical ones. Paradoxically, with the Fourth Pole, the two explorers produce a place that is unknown to them and may have to remain so. Accordingly, the text they generate during their expedition breaks off before they reach their destination.

The text is written in four languages – Arabic, German, English and Hebrew – which make their way from the front and back covers to the centre of the book.

132 pages, thread stitching, softcover, 10.5 × 14.8 cm, The collectors box includes the book, a flag and a numbered and signed photograph