Delhi exhibition showcases works of global artists in solidarity with Palestine
Featuring 140 works by Palestinian, Indian, and international artists, ‘The Body Called Palestine’ at Jawahar Bhawan, curated by Amit Mukhopadhyay and organised by SAHMAT, spotlights life under occupation
As soon as you walk into Jawahar Bhawan in Delhi, you’re greeted by panels in striking red, white, black, and green. The bold colours not only catch the eye but set the tone for your visit. Searing paintings, photos, and visual collages frame two sections of the huge hall — a reminder of the powerful convergence of politics and art. The striking exhibition, titled ‘The Body Called Palestine’, has been organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) and curated by Kolkata-based Amit Mukhopadhyay.
It displays 140 works by artists across the world, including 41 Palestinian and 31 Indian artists, half of whom are from SAHMAT. Apart from paintings and photographs, the exhibition also showcases graffiti works, posters and street protest photos — all of them revealing the Palestinian experience.
In solidarity with Palestinians
The exhibition is digital; photographs of artworks were digitally transferred to the organisers, who re-printed it for the display. The exhibition, open between 10 AM and 5 PM, will be on till May 31.
Vijendra Vij, part of the SAHMAT team which organised the exhibition, says it was building on a previous show organised on January 1, 2024, titled ‘Fida-e-Filistine’, curated by Aban Raza.
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“It took us 3-4 months to put this together. We think art and politics are intrinsically linked and we have put up this exhibition as a form of solidarity,” he says. Vij’s own works on the themes of belongingness and returning to Palestine, many featuring children, are also part of the exhibition.
SAHMAT was formed in 1989, following the death of theatre activist Safdar Hashmi, as a space for artists who “consciously decided to act in, and for the defence of cultural space, with the firm conviction that all creative endeavour in India both traditionally and contemporaneously upholds the values of secularism and cultural pluralism”.
“This exhibition is an expression of solidarity with the people of Palestine, whose very survival has been at stake since Israel launched its genocidal military offence against them,” SAHMAT says in its note.
Life under occupation
As you arrive at the venue, the first panel you see is a note from the curator, alongside the outline of the map of Palestine, with paint chipped off in several places — perhaps to denote the erosion of the land through time and struggle.
Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah’s work titled ‘Philistine’ (1997).
“Palestinian artists display the violence of life under occupation and subjugatory difference. The nostalgia and the desire to return to their homeland, the human emotions of alienation, loss, grief, anger, all are reflected in their artistic language and practice. This expression and language of art may not be similar to any previously existing language system of the world,” Mukhopadhyay says in his note.
“The purpose of this project, ‘The Body Called Palestine’, is to argue for a different narrative: to send a message to the vast and open land that is home to the Palestinians; to represent the ‘split concept of the Palestinian subject’. The first step towards realising this split concept is the vision of freedom built on the possibility of a return to their homeland; and the second is through the realisation of its subjects’ sovereignty. The ideal that I uphold is to see the Palestinian people walking through the rugged terrain and crossing over on the other side of the Wall,” he says.
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Moving through the exhibition, one is haunted and captivated in equal measure. One such work that evokes the feeling is the photograph of an installation by Palestinian artist Khalil Rabah titled ‘Philistine’ (1997). In it, an open page of the Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus has been pierced by nails except to reveal the definition of the word ‘Philistine’, defined as a “member of a people opposing the Israelites in ancient Palestine” and a “person who is hostile or indifferent to culture”, to highlight the prejudice.
About political solidarity
In another corner, we find a huge blow-up photograph of an installation by Palestinian-American artist Mary Tuma, titled ‘Homes for The Disembodied’. Five flowing black dress fabrics hang from the ceiling, in the words of the artists, “a tribute to Palestinian women who provide strength in terrible circumstances, but who receive little recognition” and “a place for the spirits of those forced out of Jerusalem to dwell”.
Mumbai-based artist Vikrant Bhise’s painting titled ‘We Resist (Gaza), 2023’
There are also works by Indian artists — a photo collage by photographer Ram Rahman and a photo of an installation of terracotta figurines by artist Vivan Sundaram. There is also a painting by Mumbai artist Vikrant Bhise titled ‘We Resist (Gaza) 2023’, showing women painted in subtle colours carrying white-cloth-wrapped corpses, the colours symbolic of their collective morbid experience.
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Renowned art historian Geeta Kapur, who was the link between curator Amit Mukhopadhyay and SAHMAT for this exhibition, says the exhibition is “vivid in the way the works are juxtaposed and annotated”. She adds: “There are not many exhibitions based on secondary materials that are so engaging. The use of the colours of the Palestinian flag enlivens and makes it urgent.”
The exhibition is not just about art but political solidarity. “Palestine is not just a political issue; it’s a humanitarian issue. It’s an issue that every questioning, politically thinking person should be raising. If it can happen in the US under Donald Trump, and in Europe, why not in India? I’m surprised that not more people are holding marches and political demonstrations on this issue here,” she says.
One wall of the exhibition also has poems: ‘Where should the birds fly after the last sky’ by Mahmoud Darwish and poems by Mohammed Moussa, founder of the Gaza Poets Society. One of them goes:
“As you witness the little moons falling
On the outskirts of Western Gaza, as
You guide the bomb of the place
Where you will die, remember you
Have a home to return to.”
