Palestinian artists are planning a Gaza Biennale

At perhaps the most important biennale in the world, the Venice Biennale, Palestine did not have its own pavilion. There was another protest at this year’s edition. Now a group of more than 50 artists from Gaza want to organize their own biennale: the Gaza Biennale.

According to various media reports, the members of the group live in all parts of Gaza, including in the heavily contested, sealed-off north. Others were able to flee to Egypt or the West Bank after October 7 and the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. With the art exhibition they want to draw attention to the terrible plight in Gaza, send a sign of life, and give themselves and others hope. Institutions, galleries and all infrastructure in Gaza have been destroyed, the group said. Her answer to this is to continue making art even under the most adverse conditions.

Art despite bombs and hunger

The idea for the biennale came about within a network of artists in Gaza who are trying to stay in touch despite flight and expulsion. Their works will be exhibited both in the Gaza Strip and, above all, in museums and institutions in Europe and the USA. That’s the plan. Institutional partners are being sought.

A crowd-funding campaign was launched via a website to collect donations for the idea. The fundraising goal is set at $90,000; according to a graphic, almost $2,000 has been raised so far.

The 26-year-old artist Tasneem Shatat from Khan Younis in Gaza is one of the driving forces of the Gaza Biennale. She told the British newspaper The Guardian: “The war has robbed us and the people of Gaza of much, and it continues to rob everything, but the world is silent. We want international institutions around the world to host and exhibit these drawings and paintings. We will not tell the stories the world already knows well, but we will tell of rebirth from the darkness of injustice, we will tell of life in the midst of death.”

It will be difficult to get works of art out of the sealed-off Gaza Strip. The 42-year-old artist Muhammad al-Hajj told the Guardian that he would either photograph his pictures in high resolution and send them digitally or have them repainted by artists in the West Bank.

The Al Risan Art Museum, also known as the Forbidden Museum, acts as a supporting force. The activist initiative without a physical house was founded in the West Bank in 2021. She chose the mountain of the same name, Al Risan, ten kilometers northwest of Ramallah, as her symbolic location. There are regular clashes between the Palestinian population and Jewish settlers on the mountain in “Area C” controlled by Israel.