In RPGs (role-playing game), one could say that real life can be rehearsed in a superstitious manner, with supernatural beings and worlds. Since the emergence of computer processing power and video games, the third world was a source for worldbuilding and space to apply game operations. Those games are not isolated from the socio-cultural and political environment that they are developed in. On the other hand, third-world gamers, developers, streamers, and hackers managed to modify those games and apply their own hyperreality in order to rehearse their world. This project explores how Palestinian players, GTA mods, and servers are simulating real life under colonial rule. Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another - Rehearsal examines Los Santos as a corollary to Palestine.

Commissioned by Singapore Art Museum.

Firas Shehadeh is a Palestinian artist and researcher based in Vienna. His work engages with worldbuilding, meaning, aesthetics, and identity after/on the Internet. He is interested in post-colonial effects, technology, and history. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.