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A photo exhibit about Palestine brings the landscape, the human spirit, and the culture to life in 36 images featuring joy, laughter, and suffering.
Mind, Body and Soul is an art collection of three artists who recorded glimpses of life in the Palestinian territories and reflections of occupation on the inhabitants. Only one of the three artists is Palestinian.
The exhibit, which kicked off in January, 2003, toured eight U.S. cities in Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin before coming to Chicago from September 5 to 21. It is scheduled to continue its travel until the spring of 2004, going to the northeastern states and then the West Coast of the U.S.
Mind represents the Palestinian culture as it is, reflecting on how the Palestinians lead their everyday life. Body reflects the beauty of the landscape, and Soul depicts the affliction of Palestinians under occupation.
The exhibit is organized by Palestinian Humanities and Arts Now (Al-Phan), a new emerging Chicago-based organization concerned with advocating the Palestinian cause through art and culture. The abbreviation is also taken from the Arabic word al-fan, which means art.
“What the exhibit does is that it humanizes the Palestinian people,” says Khaled Taha, Director of Al-Phan, to IslamOnline.
According to Taha, the exhibit presents the human face of the Palestinians, especially to the American viewers, who usually miss out on this side in all the information that they get about the region and in the midst of all the violence going on in the occupied land.
“Art engages those on the fence,” says Taha.
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Palestine Children take a moment after the IDF massacres in Jenin to try and play like kids should.
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Steve Sabella’s pictures for the most part present the Mind of the Palestinians, capturing the joy and spontaneity in children’s play and laughter. His contribution to Mind, Body and Soul is only part of earlier works that he presented for the United Nations and its different institutions, including the UNDP and UNICEF.
Born in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sabella focuses on the facial expressions evident in most of his pictures featured in the exhibit. From school pictures of smiling girls, to children sitting on rubble after the Jenin Massacre in 2002, he discloses the delight of the spirit when children forget for a few moments that they are under occupation. Even in his photos taken right after the Jenin Massacre, a sense of speechlessness and maybe a sense of loss, but not anger or violence, reflect the inner feelings of his individuals.
Luke Powell’s work reminds us still that Palestine remains the land of peace and serenity. He captures the essence of the Body of the Palestinian countryside, like most of his other images that illustrate landscapes in intimate and tranquil scenes that almost always contain small figures. When a book of his work was published in Paris, he was called the "peace photographer" for the serene nature of his images and because these were often taken in lands now associated with violence.
This could well be said of his images in Palestine, in which he captures olive trees, herds of wandering sheep, and his typical combination of traditional landscape with flatter, often horizonless views.
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Sewing near Nebi Musa, Palestine, 1980
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In contrast to those of Sabella and Powell, Andrew Courtney’s photographs strike us with the harsh realities of the occupation. Even in color, Courtney’s work presents a different perspective on the Palestinian life. In black and white, we see the traumatized Soul suffering the results of occupation, especially in a photograph of a lady and her boy looking from a human-sized hole in the wall of their house, evidence of how the Israeli occupation affects their lives. Courtney focuses on the human, not the landscape. Whether it is the child, the individual, the family, Courtney’s faces reflect the agony of years of oppression, a sense of desperation and loss. His earlier works represented people in societies where different histories, dreams, and expectations clash, and likewise in capturing the Soul, Courtney’s individuals reflect the Palestinian life in destitution.
Events sponsored by Al-Phan deal with art works influenced by Palestine and the experience of Palestinians, but not necessarily by Palestinian artists. The Palestinian artist is more aware of the culture and the surrounding environment, but the non-Palestinian artist presents a perspective that is fresh and less attached, says Taha.
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