Support Palestinian Artist in Need
My name is Mahdi, and I am a Palestinian art student. I'm a refugee from a Palestinian city called "Al-led" which was expelled by the Israeli occupation in 1965. I live in Ramallah city with my family where I also study Contemporary Visual Art. I chose to study contemporary Art because it's somehow new in the Palestinian artistic ground and it's a bridge through which I can deliver my voice and opinions on both internal and external issues.
It might sound trivial but I always think that Art chose me. As a little kid I was pulled towards drawing and creating handmade things out of nothing. My need to express myself, which might be bigger than the political, social, and environmental reality, has attracted me towards adopting Art as an approach to express my needs and passions.At the start of my art studies I explored many different themes, and then I began to focus more on the question of what body means in my society. More recently I have been working on deconstructing masculinity.
As a Palestinian living in the West Bank, my studies and my artist development are greatly affected by the occupation. My mobility is restricted so I find it difficult to exchange ideas and collaborate with other artists. Because of the occupation Palestinian people experience psychological repression, too. It is often difficult to create beauty here in all of the chaos but I am trying for my people.
THIS IS WHY I NEED YOUR HELP!
I was recently accepted to two programs over the summer, a residency in Norway (for a week) and immediately afterwards an exchange program in Sweden (two months). The Norway residency provided a full scholarship. The Sweden residency will not provide any scholarship. I have a place to stay with a friend in Sweden, but I will have to cover all living costs, which I cannot afford. Whilst in Norway and Sweden I want to work on themes of brotherhood and multiculturalism, exploring how orientalism and colonialism affect how we look at each other across cultures. Colonialism, both global and Israeli, and the way it affects access to opportunities, means that these themes are most often explored within the formal art world from a Eurocentric perspective.
Living under occupation you are always in a box, both physically and mentally, which you are always trying to step out of but you can't. The occupation constantly closes off possibilities but this is an opportunity for me to explore life away from that and open my imagination. Please support me in this journey.
To see some of my art visit my website: http://emergentartspace.org/artists/360/
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DARKMATTER (@DarkMatterRage) a queer south asian activist duo spent summer 2013 in palestine. there we worked closely with mahdi and are running this fundraising campaign in solidarity with him!
