Visioning Palestine in Italy (1970-2009)

Yasmin Riyahi, Ph.D.

The project explores the narratives about Palestinian visual art and culture in Italy, from the 1970s to 2009. The timeframe refers to the period from the international rise of the Palestinian Artists' League to the year of the first unofficial Palestinian pavilion at the LIII Venice Biennale, with the contribution of the Galleria Nuova Icona. In this chronological framework, an increasing number of associations, solidarity movements, galleries, and magazines have given space to the topic, trying to challenge the polarising narratives that excluded Palestinians from the cultural scene, as argued by Edward Said. The research aims to identify the presence of Palestinian artists in Italy, their exchange with the local artistic scene, and to relocate this intercultural interaction on the heterogeneous stage of the Mediterranean Sea. An unprecedented mosaic of experiences emerges, including art exhibitions, books, posters, and comics, that has shed light on the Palestinian visual identity, exploring the relationship between difference and identity, geographical location and dislocation, the themes of borders and migration, through a dynamic of constant contamination.