Amman, Jordan
Last week, the A.M. Qattan Foundation organised a workshop with researchers and curators Rasha Salti and Kristine Khouri based on their documentary and archival exhibition Past Disquiet at Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation, in Amman.
Over three days, Salti and Khouri presented the results of their research, which lasted more than 10 years and resulted in the exhibition.
Past Disquiet is a documentary and archival work based on research conducted on the International Fine Art Exhibition for Palestine, which opened in 1978 at the Beirut Arab University, organised by the Unified Media Unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The exhibition featured 200 artworks donated by both regional and international artists from 29 countries in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian cause.
During the workshop, the researchers raised a number of questions about the significance of Past Disquiet in the current context. They shared their long research journey that led them to Tokyo, Tehran and Paris in search for traces of the International Art Exhibition for Palestine—particularly because after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Israeli forces bombarded the offices of the PLO, forcing the organisation to move what was left of the exhibition to different countries. The exhibition, however, eventually disappeared due to successive political upheavals, affecting the Palestinian cause.
The workshop also pointed to other histories of museums ‘in exile’, contemporary to the International Art Exhibition for Palestine, such as the International Museum of Resistance Salvador Allende in Chile, Artists Against Apartheid in South Africa and Art for the People of Nicaragua, uncovering a network of artists who donated their work to these exhibitions, revealing a wider context for an anti-imperialist international solidarity movement that transcended geographical and historical borders.
Participants discussed the mechanisms of completing this research project and the best ways to complete the work in Palestine and Jordan to develop and disseminate the results of the research within the Foundation’s work in the cultural, artistic and educational sectors.
This workshop is part of a series events planned by A.M Qattan Foundation, to be held during the coming period that aims to discuss the best ways to bring Past Disquiet to Palestine for its artistic, historical and educational values. The exhibition is associated with a political era that witnessed a strong solidarity between the Palestinian cause and the world at large, as that era reflected a different image than what is currently promoted as Palestinian identity and political entity.
The workshop was attended by visual artist Ahed Izhiman, curator and researcher in visual arts Rawan Sharaf, curator and artist Vera Tamari. Ahmed Yasin, Dima Saqfalheit, Wasim Kurdi from the A.M. Qattan Foundation, along with Majd Nasrallah from Tishreen Association in Taybeh Almuthalath. It was also attended by Raed Ibrahim, Mo’awia Bajis, Luma Hamdan, Yasmin Nabulsi, Joud Tamimi, Jin Jon Kim and Jin Kwan, in addition to Nadine Fataleh, Khaled Albashir and Tamara Nassar.