From left: Eltiqa co-founders Mohammad Al-Hawajri and Dina Matar with their son Ahmad at the opening of Eltiqa: How to Work Together? at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. The family fled Gaza with nothing but the couple’s art—more than 500 works Courtesy Art Jameel
One of Gaza’s first contemporary art collectives, whose space in Gaza City was destroyed by bombing in December 2023, has been given a show in Dubai.
The exhibition, titled Eltiqa: How to Work Together?, opened last month at the Jameel Arts Centre and includes more than 180 works by six of the founding members of Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art: Mohammed al-Hawajri, Mohamed Abusal, Abdel Raouf al-Ajouri, Raed Issa, Dina Matar and Sohail Salem.
More than 180 works by six of the founding members of Gaza’s Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art are on display at Dubai’s Jameel Arts Centre Courtesy Art Jameel
Displaced across Gaza and beyond, the artists collaborated with Art Jameel on the show (until 20 July), which offers visitors a rare glimpse into the war-torn region.
“We did it because we feel we have to show something different during this situation in Gaza,” Mohammed al-Hawajri, an Eltiqa co-founder, tells The Art Newspaper from Sharjah, UAE.
“The media shows millions of videos and images, but it doesn't talk about art,” he says. “I think it's our job, our work now, to talk about artistic life in this situation—before and after our dreams.”
Guest-curated by The Question of Funding—a collective of artists and cultural producers from Palestine and beyond—the exhibition incorporates each artist’s personal story, with more than 500 accompanying captions focusing on the past three years.
Many of the works by Hawajri and Matar, his wife, come from a collection of around 500 pieces salvaged from the ruins of their home. When the couple fled Gaza in April 2024 with their four children, they left their belongings behind. The decision to leave Gaza, Hawajri says, followed several close calls with death that now shape their work.
One of the most terrifying moments took place while the family sheltered at Hawajri's sister’s house. At 2am, Israeli warplanes unleashed a wave of bombs on their quiet neighbourhood, destroying around 20 homes, including theirs.
Dina Matar at the opening of the exhibition Eltiqa: How to Work Together? at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai Courtesy Art Jameel
Trapped in darkness beneath the rubble, Hawajri was unable to reach his children until sunrise, when they were pulled to safety. But 16 members of Hawajri’s family, including his cousin and their children, were killed that night.
“It was a terrible night for us,” he says, adding that he was unable to say goodbye to loved ones because there was no body left to hold.
Describing the next few weeks, Hawajri says: “The bombs were from everywhere: from the sky, from the sea, from the tanks.” Out of options, the family fled to Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, and began living in a tent . “We had no water, no bathroom, no electricity—nothing,” he says.
Building a new life from scratch and working in the safety and abundance of the UAE while his relatives remain in Gaza has not been easy for Hawajri. A common response from his sisters, friends and other family members has been “We are OK, but we hope to die”—a sentiment Hawajri says he understands all too well.
These emotions have become the foundation of his latest pieces, where he paints “colourful and beautiful” figures with wings, symbolising a painful truth: people in Gaza are simply too tired to keep going.
Works by Eltiqa members have been gathered from across the globe Courtesy Art Jameel
Hawajri's new life has also brought unexpected changes to how he works. After years of rationing his acrylic paints and reusing canvases due to Israeli-imposed restrictions, he is now experiencing what it means to create art without limits.
“I make what I want; I can swim in the paint,” he says, explaining that this new-found freedom gives him the energy and excitement to create.
The response to the Dubai exhibition has given Hawajri and his co-founders—some of whom joined the opening night via a video link from Gaza—fresh inspiration to continue creating and exhibiting Eltiqa’s work globally.
Antonia Carver, the director of Art Jameel, says that the exhibition's title refers not only to the collective itself but is also "a provocation or invitation to the art world at large: how do we respond when artists, colleagues and culture itself is under bombardment?"
Carver says: “There's an urgency in the current moment to do whatever we can to support our colleagues, especially those who are in our region. This is a story of survival and camaraderie, of ingenuity of how to make work and how to continue supporting yourself and others through making work".
Antonia Carver, the director of Art Jameel, is keen to tour the show beyond Dubai Courtesy Art Jameel
The “phenomenal” interest in the show, Carver says, has also prompted Art Jameel to consider taking it on an international tour, allowing a wider audience to experience the powerful narratives of the works.
Carver emphasises that the exhibition is not about memorialising the past. Instead, it highlights a living, breathing collective that continues to create against all odds.
Hawajri agrees. “We do this because we want to show our humanity; we are human," he says. "We each have a story. I have my story, my culture, my life. I try with my art to show this part. I believe in art; it's an international language."
• Eltiqa: How to Work Together?, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, until 20 July
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