Art exhibition by Gazan artists opens in Amman

Artists and enthusiasts opened on Tuesday evening at Darat al Funun (Khaled Shoman Foundation), in Amman an art exhibition for Gazan artists, with the primary theme being the Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for more than a year. The exhibition, which featured paintings and artworks by Gazan artists Basil al-Maqousi, Majid Shalla, Raed Issa and Suhail Salem, who were absent from the opening ceremony due to their presence in Gaza, included 79 paintings of various sizes, three video art works, and drawings on school notebooks. Shalla, Issa and Al-Maqousi's works were distributed among the 79 paintings and video art works, while Salem's drawings on six school notebooks were presented to the children of Gaza, who were deprived of education due to the bombing and total destruction of schools. The artworks in the exhibition, which continues until the end of this month, expressed the human suffering witnessed by the people in the Gaza Strip, which since the invasion of Gaza on October 7, has led to the martyrdom of more than 42,000 Palestinians, including about 17,000 children and 12,000 women. The artworks displayed were characterized by the use of simple materials such as ballpoint pens on school notebooks, medicine bottles and old papers, in addition to the use of natural dyes such as pomegranate, hibiscus and tea, Mohammad Shaqdih, deputy director of Darat al Funun, told the Jordan News Agency (Petra). He added that the drawings reflect the killing, destruction, and forced displacement that the people of Gaza and its artists are experiencing as a result of the daily bombardment, under difficult living conditions that deprive them of the most basic elements of life such as water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine. He pointed out that these works are living testimonies to the reality of the ongoing war on Gaza and are not only drawings, but feelings and emotions that touch the heart with sorrow and pain, and have not only targeted human beings, but also the cultural heritage of the St rip in all its details. Source: Jordan News Agency