I’m Still Alive

Zawyeh Gallery announces the opening of “I’m Still Alive,” an exhibition by the Gaza-based artist Maisara Baroud, transferred onto the Gallery’s walls by Mohammad Sabaaneh, Fuad Alyamani, and other local artists. The exhibition opens in our Ramallah gallery on April 18 at 5 pm and continues until June 23, 2024.

After losing his home and studio in Gaza City in October, Maisara Baroud began drawing his diaries under the devastating Israeli genocidal war. He continued to draw as the war took to new levels, using whatever paper and pens he could find. He hasn’t ceased drawing since losing his “personal little world” to destruction, along with all his paintings, tools, books, and precious memories. Through this series of drawings, he documents displacement, brutal bombardment, the fear of loss, and the anxiety of protecting loved ones. Baroud says, “I draw to tell my friends that I am still alive.”

Baroud systematically shares his black-and-white diaries on his social media platforms, creating a continuous exhibition of documentation and protest. Due to the impossibility of exhibiting his works in other parts of Palestine, Zawyeh Gallery collaborates with Mohammad Sabaaneh and other artists to overcome this obstacle. Together, they transfer Baroud’s digital works onto the gallery’s walls, turning what seems impossible into a reality – an exhibition in Ramallah showcasing a Gazan artist’s diary six months into the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

Baroud and Sabaaneh collaborated on selecting the works and techniques for transferring the paintings onto the gallery’s walls. The exhibition will eventually see Baroud’s works wiped from the walls, highlighting the project’s impermanence and the transient nature of the war, hoping for an end to the occupation nightmare one day, as “no condition is permanent.”

The exhibition serves as a tribute to Baroud and Palestinians in Gaza, recognizing their harrowing experiences amid the ongoing war.