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Inaugural exhibition of the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Palestine, 27 August - 31 January 2018. Curator: Reem Fadda.
Aug 2017In the advent of what Jerusalem continues to face from exclusionary policies enforced by militarization and closure, the Palestinian Museum has created a multi-faceted project and exhibition, Jerusalem Lives, which aims to focus on the living aspect of the city and support its people. The exhibition attempts to examine the city of Jerusalem as a case study metaphorically representing globalization and its failures, and find answers to inspire a better future. Veering away from clichés, the exhibition will expose the neoliberal colonial and imperial challenges imposed by the Israeli occupation that Jerusalem and its Palestinian inhabitants are facing. Could the title Tahya Al Quds transform from a mere slogan to presenting real content and support for life in the city? What are the stories of collective resistance? How do we make Jerusalem live?
Four chapters explore the concept, beginning with a multidisciplinary exhibition that demonstrates the emanation, effects and limitations of globalization in Jerusalem. Commissioned or refabricated site-specific artworks by Palestinian and international artists form the second chapter in the grounds and gardens of the Palestinian Museum. In the third chapter, the public programme aims to support civic and non-governmental organizations in the city that have adopted a long-term methodology of collective struggle. Supported through the Museum and creating a working relationship with these various organizations, this inaugural exhibition of the Museum’s will be a platform for these institutions to fulfill the needs they have identified. The Jerusalem Lives publication is the fourth chapter, focusing on knowledge production as a frontier of resistance. In partnership with the Palestinian journal Jerusalem Quarterly, a special edition celebrating the lives of important Jerusalemites will also be produced.
Jerusalem Lives is curated by Reem Fadda, former Associate Curator, Middle Eastern Art, for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project. She has worked as Academic Director to the International Academy of Art – Palestine, which she helped found in 2006, and was recently the curator of the 6th Marrakech Biennale in 2016.
Participating artists
Ruanne Abou-Rahme & Basel Abba, Naji al-Ali, Bisan Hussam Abu Eisheh, Nabil Anani, Nahed Awwad, Samira Badran, Tayseer Barakat, Kamal Boullata, Raouf Haj-Yahia, Khalil Halabi, Samia Halaby, Rula Halawan, Mona Hatoum, Khaled Hourani, Ahed Izhiman, Emily Jacir, Khaled Jarrar, Marwa Jbara, Muqata’a, Yazan Khalili, Bashir Makhoul, Sliman Mansour, Abdul Hay Mosallam, Ibrahim Noubani, Khalil Rabah, Khalil Rayyan, Nida Sinnokrot, Dennis Sobeh, Vera Tamari, Visualizing Palestine, Inass Yassin, Mohanad Yaqubi, Vladimir Tamari. Sultan F.N. Abdulaziz Al-Saud (Saudi Arabia), Iman Issa (Egypt), Athar Jaber (Iraq/ Netherlands), Mohammed Kazem (United Arab Emirates), Maria Thereza Alves (Brazil), Simone Bitton (France), CAMP, Rain Wu & Eric Chen (Taiwan), Bob Gramsma (Switzerland), Oscar Murillo (Colombia), Sudarshan Shetty (India), Adrián Villar Rojas (Argentina).
About the Palestinian Museum
The Palestinian Museum is an independent museum dedicated to supporting an open and dynamic Palestinian culture nationally and internationally.
The building was designed by Dublin-based architecture company Heneghan Peng, selected by a jury following an international design competition. Covering an area of 3500 m2, the building contains exhibition spaces, an open-air amphitheatre, and indoor and outdoor cafeterias as well as classrooms, offices, and storage space. Its structure references the terraced hills around Birzeit and is surrounded by terraced gardens, designed by Jordanian landscape architect Lara Zureikat.
The Museum is launched without a collection. Its programming will rely on touring exhibitions and a digital platform. Its permanent collection will then gradually be built over time.
The Palestinian Museum is a flagship project of Taawon-Welfare Association, a Palestinian, independent, and not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the developmental and humanistic needs of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, the Palestinian communities inside the Green Line and among the refugee communities in Lebanon.
Jerusalem Lives
[Tahya Al Quds]
27 August - 31 January 2018
Press conference: 26 August 2017
Inaugural exhibition
The Palestinian Museum
Museum Street
(off Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Street)
PO Box 48, Birzeit, Palestine
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