Palestinian Art Court– Al Hoash For the second year in a row, and as part of the Palestinian Art Court – al Hoash program, an annual art exhibition in recognition of Palestinian women artists, is set for March of this year. Each year, al Hoash organizes and hosts a diverse set of individual and group exhibitions with the ostensible goal of highlighting the quality and nature of Palestinian art productions. This activity aims at reviving the visual arts in Jerusalem , and presenting a program that provokes and enriches the visual culture of its audience. This year, Palestinians commemorate and live the 60th anniversary of the 1948 Nakbeh, a date that dramatically changed the region and its people. The Nakba befell Palestinians in 1948 and till this present moment it remains seared in our individual and collective memory. This calamity has built our perception of self, of the land and the collective identity. It defined our vocabulary and defined the contours of our cultural and national identity. This is an unforgettable history; as it is immensely important to continue on remembering and analyzing to help us understand our existence and contributes to the shaping of our present and future. Over the past decades, An Nakbeh has been presented, spoken about, articulated and expressed by a long array of intellectuals, historians and artists. Each and every one of them searching deep into history and through the alleys of memory in search for that special and personal something. A certain ‘reference’ that could confirm the truth and potency of his or her narrative, ascertaining their right to the past, present and future. So did the Palestinian women artists, who approached ‘An Nakbeh’ from different perspectives and utilized materials and techniques to narrate a story or present a case or expressed a sentiment. In all, Palestinian women artists succeeded on many occasions to employ the material, to provoke the senses and to recall the memories. In this exhibition, we host three prominent artists who have addressed this issue with intelligence, sensitivity and creativity. Memory triptych tackles three main aspects of the Palestinian history directly related to An Nakbeh. Rana Bishara, narrates through her live installation the story of An Nakbeh. Her work is composed of a number of glass sheets equal to the years of An Nakbeh. Each year she adds yet another sheet, where every sheet has a silk screened image from the daily life of Palestinians over the past 60 years. Mervat Essa presents her work, “The Coffin”, which in itself constitutes one part of a larger project that she named “Scarves”. Scarves tell the story of expulsion and death for Mervat based on the story of Bir’em -- her lost village. As for Sandi Hilal, her participation comes through her video “The Room of Dreams”, one component of the long term project “Stateless Nation”. The video presents a series of interviews with Palestinians about their dreams. The project constitutes of several items, and one of them is the installation of the magnified Passports held by Palestinians as travel documents rather than citizenship, which was exhibited in several locations in Palestine and abroad. Three art works and three issues addressed by women artists to form a triangle – a triangle of memory, of expulsion, death and aspirations. Address: |