Nakbah is the Arabic word for “disaster”. About three quarters of all Palestinians were violently displaced from their homes in 1948 after the establishment of Israel. Seventy-five years later, can artists effectively engage audiences to better understand the ongoing impact of the Nakba? While mainstream museums tiptoe into the subject – although they often have vast collections of art from the region – a small London-based gallery is bringing lived experiences of the Nakba to the surface.
Last week, P21 Gallery opened its doors Mathematics of the Palestinian Nakba75, a thought-provoking exhibition featuring video works, prints and photographs that depict an austere timeline of numerical facts and figures. As a seasoned museum professional, I attended the opening, curious to know what this exhibition theme might mean in the larger context of artistic activism and freedom of expression.
P21 Gallery promotes contemporary Arab art and culture through its varied programs and free exhibitions ranging from Arab Pop Art to new perspectives on traditional craftsmanship. The space operates independently as a charitable trust, with a translucent building facade that appears understated, but its prime location in the heart of Euston attracts a diversity of cultural vultures and keen students from nearby universities. Ironically, it’s located just down the road from the British Library, whose archives house the original Balfour Statement authored by former British Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour. As the exhibit points out, Balfour’s Zionist dream “has become a nightmare for the Palestinian people.”
Nakba75 addresses how major cultural organizations were, and still are, enmeshed in historical and contemporary geopolitics. “On the eve of the Sabbath of May 14, 1948, 37 Zionist leaders from around the world gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv to sign a “Declaration of Independence” for a State without defined borders, without a Constitution . and without legitimacy”, notes an introductory panel.
Antoine Raffoul, the exhibition’s lead curator who is now based in Italy, lived a nomadic life as an architect and environmentalist after being forcibly expelled from Palestine as a child in 1948.
“It’s an ironic exhibit that plays with real factual numbers so people see it in a new light and remember it better,” Raffoul said of the exhibit. The captivating biography of his family is documented by a montage of ephemera archives in a dedicated section of the Nakba75 exposure.
During our impromptu video call just before the exhibition opened, Raffoul emphasized that conflicts can only be resolved through the practice of inquiry. “As an architect, I’ve always said that you don’t cover up a crack in a wall, you open it up, you find out why it exists. You find the root causes, then fix the problem.
Raffoul collaborated with P21 Gallery Artistic Director Yahya Zaloom to bring together a thoughtful selection of past works by award-winning artists as well as new commissioned installations to spark awareness and dialogue.
The exhibition presents experimental modes of artistic interpretation. An artwork, 418 (2023) by Yahya Zaloom, is a series of 14 color-coded digital prints that geometrically depict the scattered Arabic letters of 14 districts as an ode to 418 localities that were systematically depopulated and destroyed by Zionist paramilitaries.
Highlights featured include two gripping films by Gil Mualem-Doron, a UK-based ex-Israeli who is now dedicated to promoting his socially engaged artistic practice. His ethereal short film “Rosette(2013) captures the lost intergenerational legacy of destroyed Palestinian homes in the village of Al-Rasid (Rosetta, in English), the liminal place near the banks of the Egyptian Nile in which the Rosetta Stone was discovered. He reveals that the only remaining structure has been renovated and turned into Biet-Gidi – a museum that celebrates the occupation of the area by Israeli Etzel forces in 1948.
Equally poignant,”absent present” (2019) powerfully portrays the issue of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Israel who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the war. Arab-Israeli of 1948, but who remained in the area that became the State of Israel, they are considered absent by the Israeli government because they were not at home on a particular day, even unintentionally or unintentionally Homes, property and land of IDPs have been seized by Israel.
An atmospheric soundscape of a motion picture film pervades the gallery. “Naim and Wadee’a” (1999) directed by Najwa Najjar skillfully weaves together vintage photography and family oral histories that reveal their vivid life before the Nakba.
The exhibition opens with an encounter with an eyewitness documented by Mario Rizzi, an Italian filmmaker based in Berlin. “Impermanent” (2007) features Ali Akilah, a 96-year-old man who poetically recalls his life as a doctor in the Palestinian village of Lifta until he became a refugee in 1948.
It is heartwarming to see accessible places like the P21 gallery offering visitors a safe space to reflect. Its very existence is a powerful act of resistance that pushes us to think more deeply about questions such as “why now? » and « and after? for artists seeking to comment on past, present and future narratives about Palestine.
It is a difficult aspiration for an exhibition to transform the paradigm of the museum, but it is a step towards a growing movement for museums to be more socially engaged, truthful and relevant by co-producing programs with communities.
I left the gallery wondering why the rest of the UK museum sector has largely been silent on how to tackle this pressing issue more openly in their programs, particularly when public demand is strong. Is it a fear of backlash or loss of status that could threaten livelihoods? More likely, the inertia stems from stifling tenures by stifling boards and outdated directors who are risk averse.
But scholars like Nur Masalha are optimistic that the tide is changing. “I think we have civil society on our side. We have human rights organizations on our side. And we have the unions on our side,” Musalha said during his speech at the opening of the exhibit, tapping into his role as a Palestinian historian and SOAS scholar who wrote the critically acclaimed book. Palestine: a history of four thousand years (2019).
Imagine what exhibits commemorating Nakba100 in 2048 might look like. Will anything change by then? Will the world have evolved? Will artists still care?
The lingering challenge remains for creatives to bring Palestinian narratives from the margins to the heart. The wider museum sector urgently needs to wake up and step up.
