Video from AP Archive
Palestinian Artist from Gaza Expresses His Emotions About His Hometown Through His Art in Dubai
"ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dubai, UAE - 22 January 2024
1. Various of Palestinian artist Hazem Harb's "saved paintings," artworks that he was able to get out of Gaza before his family’s home was destroyed
2. Artwork by Harb called, The Dances of Escape #2, 2005
3. Various of visitors at Harb's exhibition
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hazem Harb, visual artist originally from Gaza:
"Since art should be part of our social and human fabric, it plays a role in expressing the current situation and can be part of this event that we are experiencing. Art is also a way to document history, it’s historic recording and real-time recording. Therefore, as an artist you have a humanitarian responsibility to be part of that scene, even if it’s a tragic one.”
5. Various of art collection utilizing gauze
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hazem Harb, visual artist originally from Gaza:
"The fact that a city like Gaza, which was responsible for inventing this material (gauze) that everyone on earth now uses, is in dire need of it or is deprived of it, is a dramatic concept. It’s the city that invented this material and is now deprived of it."
7. Two works from Harb's 2023 gauze collection
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hazem Harb, visual artist originally from Gaza:
“If we focus on the bodies, they’re a little monumental. It’s a way of honoring these people, because they’re not just burnt or destroyed bodies on the floor, they are people with stories, worries, sorrows, joys and love. They’re not just bodies and they’re not just numbers.”
9. Woman at art gallery looking at Harb's artwork
10. Various of woman looking at Harb's pieces from collection called, Dystopia is not a Noun
11. Drawings from Dystopia is not a Noun, 2023
12. Close of Harb's Dystopia is not a Noun #10, 2023
13. Harb's Dystopia is not a Noun #13, 2023
14. Harb's Dystopia is not a Noun #14, 2023
15. Art piece from Dystopia is not a Noun collection
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hazem Harb, visual artist originally from Gaza:
"These (drawings) are of people and of scenes that we are all seeing. But I wasn’t copying and pasting the pictures that I’m seeing, I was trying to bring out the emotions from our subconscious mind and to express them through the use of charcoal. Charcoal represents darkness, dust, demolition and burning, so it was the best medium to use to express the current situation."
17. Harb standing in front of interactive wallpaper of Gaza's old city
18. Various of Harb's The last escape, 2023
19. Harb pretending to lean on fence in interactive wallpaper of Gaza's old city
STORYLINE:
In a small room in the back of the Tabari art gallery in Dubai, hang 22 frames showing figures created with gauze by Palestinian artist Hazem Harb.
The white gauze comes in a color that has become associated with dead bodies in the Gaza Strip, where a devastating 3-month-old war has been taking place.
Images of bodies draped in white sheets lining the streets have been seen across the world, and Harb says the color white no longer represents purity and peace.
Outside in the main gallery hall, are Harb's paintings that he took with him in September last year, the last time he visited Gaza. After that, the war erupted and his family’s home was destroyed.
Harb left Gaza for Italy in 2003, but has maintained a connection with the people and the land for the past two decades.
His last visit to the besieged territory was last summer when he spent two months there." from video introduction