Bank of Palestine has been the main sponsor of the Palestinian Museum since its inception, and attends all cultural and artistic events held at the museum. As part of this sponsorship, the bank recently supported the new art exhibition entitled “Intimate Terrains: Representations of a Disappearing Landscape,” which is implemented under the supervision of the museum guest-curator Dr. Tina Sherwell, and will run from 2 April until 31 December 2019. The exhibition will also feature a busy program of several cultural and educational events.
The exhibition features over 100 art pieces ranging from paintings, photographs, drawings, art videos, installation art, sculpture and artwork within the museum gardens, presented by 36 Palestinian artists from Palestine and the Diaspora. It gathers a spectrum of art works that explore how representations of the Palestinian landscape have evolved over the decades, and how the concepts of loss and ongoing transformations of the landscape worked their way in art representations, and addresses questions of the experience of distance from one’s homeland and exile. It also explores the changing representation of landscape by Palestinian artists, and people’s relationship with place and geographical location through themes of erasure, fragmentation, distance and sense of belonging.
The exhibition is considered a reference for diverse Palestinian art and features the viewpoints of Palestinian artists from different generations, and concepts about the land and the natural landscape, the transformations they have undergone and the relationship of Palestinians with this land and landscape. It also depicts the lives of artists from different geographical areas, within Palestine and the diaspora, who witnessed different political regimes and experiences.
Along the sidelines of the exhibition, the Palestinian Museum announced the launching of the Public and Educational Program for 2019, which will feature dozens of art seminars, debates, workshops, open days, lectures and tours that are planned around the monthly themes of the exhibition. The Museum aims to build a bridge for transferring various forms of knowledge, art and viewpoints to vast groups within Palestinian society.
Bank of Palestine’s support for this exhibition is a reflection of the artistic and cultural partnership between the bank and the Museum with an aim to promote Palestinian culture, increase people’s familiarity, promote Palestinian historic and civilizational heritage, highlight different aspects that mirrored a living image of Palestinian culture and concrete evidence on its characteristics and values. The bank’s support stems from its strategy to promote corporate social responsibility that aims to develop cultural development projects to fulfill the dream of many Palestinian pioneers and promote an open and vibrant Palestinian culture at the local and international levels.