With other eyes. Visions, words and sounds for a just peace”

For about four months Arci has launched a political-cultural campaign in support of the Palestinian cause, with the intention of valorising the large amount of cultural activities and solidarity with the Palestinian people in a common framework. “With other eyes. Visions, words and sounds for a just peace” is a campaign that to date has hundreds of initiatives throughout the national territory including book presentations, debates and musical events.

The objective is to talk about Palestine beyond the stereotypes fueled by the communication of European and Western media, first of all bringing out its great culture. And it is precisely through the eyes of culture that “we want to discuss, inform and discuss to get interpretative ideas, describe the occupation through the eyes of those who suffer it, help understand the consequences of the situation and its concrete effects on Palestinian society, on that Israeli and the entire Middle East”, Arci writes in a note

For this reason, the association, together with the illustrated book promotion festival “Librimmaginari” – an Arci Viterbo project curated by Marcella Brancaforte and Marco Trulli – involved 17 illustrators from Italy, Tunisia, Lebanon, Algeria and Malaysia to focus on some symbolic and representative nodes of the culture of the Palestinian people. The artists involved are Lilia Benbelaïd, Valeria Brancaforte, Marco Brancato, Cammamoro, Raed Charaf, Gloria Di Bella, Clara Fois, Kalina Muhova, Seif Eddine Nechi, Giulia Orecchia, Marco Quadri, Alex Raso, Guido Scarabottolo, Laura Scarpa, Jana Traboulsi, Inda Ahmad Zahri, Salim Zerrouki.

Each illustration refers to a symbol, a passage from the history of the Palestinian condition, to the rights denied and violated by the Israeli occupation.

“The exhibition – continues the note – is thus a narrative device of a traumatic landscape, marked by occupations, by a separation wall, surveilled and devastated in a brutal and murderous manner. Through popular embroidery, calligraphy and through different expressive languages, the Palestinian people have told their historical condition, their traditions and in this also the plants and fruits (such as Jaffa oranges, the cactus) the various elements of the landscape have become symbols of the fight against occupation and emblems of hope. In this landscape, the resistance of symbols and signs (which also manifests itself through creative practices of art and craftsmanship) is a vital contribution to the reconstruction of hope and an opening for humanity and coexistence”.

The choice to accompany the illustrations of this exhibition with some verses of Palestinian poets, a selection of poems edited by Carla Cocilova, Arci Toscana, is based on the desire to combine visual images with some emotional images, which through the figures and poetic constructions can offer further elements of knowledge and create assonances between words and graphic signs.

The choice of verses included in the exhibition was in fact made starting from the illustrations themselves, with the sole purpose of provoking further opportunities for reflection and paying homage to the Palestinian people and their literary production.

This small selection of texts, some by big names recognized worldwide – Fadwā Ṭūqān, Samīḥ al-Qāsim, Ğabra Ibrahim Ğabra and clearly Maḫmoud Darwish – others by two contemporary authors: the famous writer Ibrahim Nasrallah and the young poet and activist Moḫammad el -Kurd, contains within itself some key themes of Palestinian culture.

By visiting the exhibition you can also listen to the podcast Until liberation II by Learning Palestine & Radio Alhara. The podcast is a schedule of lessons, conferences, poems, music and songs to imagine ways of acting together, to break down the walls and borders that separate us, for a just peace in Palestine.

The exhibition was previewed at the national eQua meeting, at Base Milano in March, and will be exhibited in Terni, thanks to the collaboration between Arci and the municipal library, from 7 to 15 May at the Chiostrina della Biblioteca.