Culture
29 November 2023
On This Land
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Explore the 3D Virtual Exhibition
On This Land opened on November 19th, 2023 at Alserkal Avenue’s Concrete. Born as a triangulated response, the exhibition was spirited to life in just 3 weeks, building on years of research and informed dialogue on Palestinian art and culture by The Palestinian Museum and the Barjeel Art Foundation, with the curatorial support of Alserkal Arts Foundation.
Amer Shomali, Director of The Palestinian Museum, opening night of On This Land
The exhibition creates a necessary space for collective re-learning, at a time when the Palestinian Museum’s own doors are closed. Featuring more than 100 artworks, including a selection of the museum’s digital archive, as well as sculpture and paintings by Palestinian artists and by artists representing Palestine from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s collection.
During the exhibition the founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, led us on a tour of the 100+ paintings and sculptures on display.
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation
On This Land Tour with Faris Shomali, Researcher, Art Archivist, and Former Digitisation Manager at the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive Project
Short Stories of the Artists by Faris Shomali
Read short stories of the artists from On this Land and the people in the Palestinian Museum’s digital archive’s photographs. The stories are researched and written by Faris Shomali.
The Tragedy of Mustafa al-Hallaj
“It was my wanderings that led me to [woodblock] carving. Sculpture requires institutions, stability, and land, and I have none… Sculpture is not suitable for the displaced artist, I think.”
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[1] Ahmad Bazoun, “Al-Fannān at-Tashkīly al-Filasṭīny Muṣṭafā al-Ḥallāj: Arṣum Bi-Rūḥ at-Ṭifl Wa-Alʿab Fī Farāgh al-Lawḥah Ḥattā al-Mutʿah [Palestinian Plastic Artist Mustafa Al-Hallaj: I Draw with the Spirit of a Child and Play in the Woodblock’s Void until Ecstasy],” Assafir, March 5, 1994, sec. Culture, 14.
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A self-taught artist, Ghabin prefers the intimacy of painting with his fingers over the intermediary of a brush. He paints for eight hours every day from the comfort of his humble home, surrounded by the play, laughter, and shouts of his 8 children.
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Nahil Bishara resisted static definitions. She navigated beyond the rigid dichotomy of arts and crafts, traversing mediums, materials, and techniques. Labels such as sculptor, painter, and designer fall short to grasp the nuances of her creative labor.
Abu Fadi
Life provided him with an abundance of reasons to surrender, but he never backed down. Salim Daoud Khalil Azar, or Abu Fadi, as I know him, was born in 1960 in Gaza to a family of refugees from from the port town of Jaffa, northwest of Jerusalem.
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