The Empty Quarter Fine Art Photography gallery proudly presents ‘This is not a love song’ an exhibition co-curated by Elie Domit and Hester Keijser, featuring six emerging photographers and one common denominator: the current state of Palestine. The exhibition opening is on March 9th, 7 pm- 10 pm, and will run until April 4th.
This is not a love song. This is not a theme exhibition. This is not a curators’ statement. This is a tribute to the few people on the planet who stand still to the test of time and tyranny, who do not bow down, blend in or give up, instead who show a tenacity and force of will and who have a defiant soul that cannot be crushed. These are the people who give hope because they do not pretend that there is an exit from the human condition, but who nevertheless want a solution. These are the people who keep reinventing themselves every time they get crushed to the ground.
‘This is not a love song’ is a gathering of voices and views, of positions taken and abandoned, issuing forth from and reflecting back on the situation Palestinians are facing on a day to day basis. We do not feign to give a comprehensive overview of contemporary Palestinian fine art photography. To comprehend this field, one must first apprehend the situation, and exactly that which is the nexus of the Palestinian question: that no one ever agrees on what is actually the case. We don’t get the picture, instead we get many pictures and perspectives, filtered through individual experiences, national interests, global politics, religious wars- with some of these perspectives being marketed more aggressively than others.
Amidst this turmoil of vying factions forever demanding we show our true colours, all that we bring is our bleeding heart. Yet if that is what it takes to be political, then the works brought together for ‘This is not a love song’ are political to the core. There is a stubborn insistence to make up one’s own mind and a decided refusal to be made party to the interests of others. We find a need to engage with the growing number of those forced to make a home amidst the ruins. We see an aversion against the spectacular outfit which the struggle for power dons for the eyes of the world. We sense a deeply felt conviction, that it is of utmost importance that we keep resisting the voices telling us that life is dispensable, who want us to forget that the only proportion that sets the scale is the human one. Art may not be able to change the real reality of life lived in conflict areas, what it can do is silently point out what we should not lose in sight of our struggle to survive.
