Ramallah – (A.M. Qattan Foundation – 06-03-2025):
The A.M. Qattan Foundation will launch its new group exhibition and public program, I shall carve the sun’s words, set to open to the public on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Curated by Reem Shadid, the exhibition presents an artistic exploration that engages with both memory and the contemporary archive of the Palestinian experience.
The show takes its title from a verse in Tawfiq Zayyad’s 1966 poem Upon an Olive Branch, invoking the archive not as a static repository but as a dynamic and ever-evolving space. It positions the archive as both a starting point and a site of continuous renewal, reflecting the enduring Palestinian act of resistance against a century of systematic colonial violence.
Featuring a diverse range of artworks—including visual installations, photography, sound pieces, and video works—the exhibition brings together the work of eighteen artists and artist duos from occupied Palestine and the diaspora. Their collective practice expands and liberates the notion of the archive, transforming it from a rigid tool to define identity into a generative space for reclaiming imagination and envisioning the future.
Some of the artists engage with the archives of Palestinian civil society and cultural life, uncovering what lies beyond the pre-established narratives and shedding light on what has been marginalized or silenced. Their work challenges the ways history is documented and weaponized as a tool of epistemic colonialism. Others focus on the present, viewing contemporary Palestinians as the archive of the future. Through an engagement with daily realities and the movement of history, they critically examine how memory and nostalgia are constructed and evolve over time, beyond the frameworks of power and control.
The show also raises a crucial question: How can we move beyond slogans toward a deeper understanding of the meaning of “Free Palestine”? It invites direct engagement with political, cultural, and social realities, emphasizing that, despite the uncertainty of the present, the scarcity of possibilities, and the fragmentation of the landscape, spaces still exist to resist violence and transform silence into a language of defiance and action.
I shall carve the sun’s wordsaligns with the Foundation’s broader vision of fostering a dynamic cultural, artistic, and educational landscape—one capable of generating critical and emancipatory knowledge. It builds upon a year-long research project within the institution, which examines the history and potential of institutional civil work as a space for action, imagination, and liberation.
Curator: Reem Shadid
Participating Artists:
Rana Batrawi and Shareef Sarhan, Emily Jacir, Salim Abu Jabal, Shaimaa Esmat, Mahmoud Al-Shaer, Rehaf Al Batniji, Ahed Izhiman, Monther Jawabreh, Samar Ozrail and Rebal Dirieh, Izz Al-Jabari, Ruba Alfarawneh, Hanna Qubty, Ahmed Alaqra, Basma al-Sharif, Rula Halawani, Noor Abed, Ghassan Naddaf, Ola Zaitoun.