Palestinian art draws attention at Venice Biennale

International interest in Palestinian art, which has burgeoned since October 7, is reaching its peak at the 2024 Venice Biennale. One good example is Samia Halaby, whose 1969 painting "Black Is Beautiful" won a special mention by the Golden Lion Award jury.

Halaby is also an activist who is deeply critical of Israel. I asked if this was the first time she had shown at the Biennale. "How could I have exhibited? You occupied me," she said; after all, there was no Palestinian pavilion at the Biennale. "Israel is a terrorist state," she said, adding that "in every family in Israel there is someone who has killed a Palestinian."

At the Venice Biennale the controversy is also about what isn't there: The Israeli pavilion remains closed after artist Ruth Patir and curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit announced they would only open it if a cease-fire was declared and the hostages freed. The Biennale has no official Palestinian pavilion, as Italy doesn't recognize a Palestinian state.

But the Biennale's chief curator, Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, has ensured a significant Palestinian presence, such as a huge work by Mexican artist Frieda Toranzo Jaeger. This effort, with its references to Palestine, is prominently placed at the Arsenale, a key venue at the Biennale.

Among the references is a bunch of watermelons, one of them featuring the slogan "Viva la Vida, Frida Kahlo, Viva Palestina." Kahlo painted "Viva la Vida, Watermelons" in 1954, the year of her death.

Palestinian and non-Palestinian artists collaborated for the "South West Bank" event at the Biennale. Another exhibit, not officially part of the Biennale, is called "Foreigners in their Homeland" and is curated by Faisal Saleh, director of the Palestine Museum US in Connecticut.

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Palestinian art is reaching a pivotal point, from under the shadow of the Gaza War (Haaretz)