FROM PALESTINE WITH ART: A COLLATERAL EXHIBITION OF SURVIVAL AT LA BIENNALE D’ ARTE, VENICE

“From Palestine with Art,” an official collateral exhibition at La Biennale d’ Arte, “The Milk of Dreams” in Venice, Italy opened for the private days on April 19, 2022. Continuing until November 27, the packed show at Palazzo Mora takes the opportunity to show the world art community the excellence of artists of Palestinian heritage from Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora. Nancy Nesvet, curator of the exhibition sponsored by the Palestine Museum US, where she is head curator (as well as Artscope Magazine’s national correspondent), told me it was an intentional decision to display paintings, photographs, sculptures and installation focused on the beautiful Palestinian landscape and people, largely ignoring the documented atrocities and violence displayed on social media and television worldwide. The message rings out that the people and land portrayed should not be destroyed.

That message comes through loud and clear in the landscape of the “Jerusalem Hills” by Nabil Anani prominently displayed on the wall facing the entrance, and the two paintings of land with modern technological equipment ruining that same vista by Taqi Sabateen. This exhibit showcases the pride and determination of physical personal labors, especially by women. Mohamed Khalil’s painting of “The Salt Worker,” an occupation largely held by underpaid women, laboring at difficult, grueling work juxtaposes the photograph, “A Woman Selling Figs.” An old woman harvests figs from trees she has planted and tends the fruit to be sold at the vegetable and fruit market, sustaining her. We also see the age-old tatreez embroidery patterns on the 100-year-old thobes encased in glass and the contemporary treatment of the fabric thobe newly created by Samar Hussaini surrounding the doorway.

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