Art re-emerges in Gaza
As life struggles to return to normal, artists there express the pain and suffering Gaza experienced in the war.
The latest Israeli war has energized the Gaza art world, and artists there are expressing their suffering with aesthetics and creativity through live shows and comedy acts.
Visual artist Eyad Sabbah has breathed life into the areas destroyed by the occupation in the Shajaiya neighborhood, in the east of Gaza. To capture scenes of suffering and destruction there, he carved statues that reflect the pain of the inhabitants during the war, as well as their displacement. His work is displayed on a small piece of land surrounded by ruined buildings on every side, including Wafa Rehabilitation Hospital, which was reduced to dust.
Visitors to Shajaiya, which suffered the highest displacement and the fiercest destruction in the Gaza Strip in the last war, smell the stench of death in every alley and see its ghost in the eyes of the residents. Life in this neighborhood has wasted away completely. The inhabitants have been demoralized and the buildings and infrastructure have been destroyed.
Sabbah, who also lectures at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, “The project I started directly after the war and named 'Worn Out' lasted for around a month and a half," calling it “open space installation art.”
