(NON) EXHIBITIONS OF SOLIDARITY

1 — NOV 2023

How big is Palestine? What is the area of Palestine?

Some say 27,000 square kilometres referring to historic Palestine. Others mention 6,000 square kilometres based on the Oslo Accords. Some claim 300 square kilometres, which is the area of Gaza.

We believe these events and collaborations reveal that Palestine spans over the whole world.

In response to the war on Gaza, Alserkal Arts Foundation, Barjeel Art Foundation, and the Palestinian Museum triangulated to organise On This Land—an art exhibition focused on Palestine. We thank Alserkal Arts Foundation and Barjeel Art Foundation for creating this space as an extension to the closed Palestinian museum—a platform for solidarity with Palestine.

As of October 8th, The Palestinian Museum has been closed, since reaching it became dangerous.

We dismantled our exhibition at the time and secured all the artworks inside and outside the museum in anticipation of a potential army or settlers’ raid. We cannot risk getting looted. Despite closing the museum's doors, new doors were opened, and new spaces emerged.

When exhibiting in Palestine becomes impossible during war, extended spaces embrace us. When our voices are silenced and censored, you become our voice. Today, our priority is to amplify our voices and demand an end to the genocide.

Palestinians will not be erased easily, and surely, we will not die quietly.

2 — FEB 2024

After the flames of war swallowed the gallery spaces of Eltiqa Art Gallery and Shababek for Contemporary Art in Gaza, we offered our main exhibition hall as an extension to their bombed spaces. There, they mounted This is Not an Exhibition.

This is not an exhibition and certainly not a traditional one neatly displaying specific artworks by their artists. That is beyond our capabilities now; no one can do so, as basic communication with Gazan artists is almost impossible. They, like everyone else in

the Gaza Strip, are resisting annihilation in a genocidal war. For months, they have been suffering the misery of displacement, hunger, and cold. They left their homes and studios behind, either destroyed or their destruction imminent, and have consigned their artworks to flames, shelling, and death. As for those who live outside Gaza, their hearts are being torn apart by the agony and martyrdom of their families, our families, and their fates. These considerations have made the mere mention of art seem a luxurious disconnection from reality, and consequently has made it seem preposterous to even think about creating a conventional exhibition.

The undertaking of this (non)exhibition took place under emergency conditions and thus was not implemented per procedures typically recognised by museums and galleries. Collecting the artworks, their arrangement, articulating their descriptions, and hanging them on the walls took place through a rather exceptional and unusual methodology.

The Palestinian Museum in partnership with Shababek and Eltiqa mobilised their networks to locate as many artworks as possible in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which were produced by artists from Gaza. We located and gathered 320 artworks by 110 artists from Gaza. At the time of the opening of the exhibition in February, only one of the artists, Hiba Zaqout, had been killed by the Israeli army. Now, five of the exhibited artists have been murdered and their lifeworks and studios lost.

This is not an exhibition. This is a space for solidarity with Gazan artists and a platform to present not only their perspectives but also their tenacious clinging to life and what life itself means to them.

The (non)exhibition remains open until the war ends.

3 — Expected Summer 2024

In times of war, it is normal for people to flee, but Palestinians usually run in the opposite direction, aiming to save their artworks and cultural productions. This is the Palestinian obsession with preserving their creations, saving the traces of their existence on this land.

Our lives as Palestinians have come to a complete stop since the 7th of October of last year. Life in Gaza became unrecognisable, and life in the West Bank was under constant threat. The list of invaluable historical sites that have been destroyed in the short span of a few months is endless, shocking, and intolerable. All the museums and art galleries in Gaza, in addition to more than 200 heritage sites (out of 350), were bombed.

Our forthcoming (non)exhibition of solidarity is an urgent call to safeguard Palestinian art during the current aggression against the people of Palestine and the intentional destruction of their heritage. Like Noah’s Ark, this is a call for a vault that will survive the genocide, safeguarding and displaying Palestinian arts in partnership with institutions around the world.

This is a storage-exhibition. The collection will be displayed on roll- out art panel storage units and flat-files.
If you have an ark for our art—a potential extension to our museum, get in touch.

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