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Nora Ounnas Leroy<\/h4>\n

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At the tail end of the MO.CO \u201cMuseums in Exile\u201d<\/a> exhibit (Chile, Sarajevo, Palestine), on view in Montpellier through Feb. 5, 2023, visitors find the last rooms of the collection that are reserved for the Palestinian National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be clear: this museum does not exist, at least physically. For now, it is a project, a dream, a prayer, a challenge to time, to nations, to history…to silence. Far more, in my view, than the other two collections devoted to Chile and Sarajevo, this grouping of paintings and other works perfectly illustrates the concept of a \u201cmuseum in exile,\u201d putting one in mind of Andr\u00e9 Malraux\u2019s axiom, “a museum is first of all an idea.”<\/p>\n

The first batch of pieces supporting this collection were gathered in Beirut in 1978 by members of the PLO, but soon disappeared under the bombs, in 1982. In 2005, G\u00e9rard Voisin, UNESCO’s artist for peace, and Mounir Anastas, member of the Palestinian delegation, came up with the idea of a fund of works for Palestine, but this collection would remain available for viewing only to UNESCO members during internal conventions. The artist Ernest Pignon-Ernest, who had already led the “art against apartheid<\/a>” campaign in the 1980s, launched the idea of a solidarity collection for Palestine in 2015, with Elias Sanbar, historian and writer, who was then Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO. A year later, a partnership agreement was signed with the Institut du Monde Arabe<\/a> in Paris to conserve, classify, list and enhance the works offered. Until now, the collection\u2019s new acquisitions were exhibited once a year within the walls of the Institute only.<\/p>\n

Elias Sanbar is now the director of the collection. “We are betting that life will always be stronger,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is a museum of solidarity. The ambition is not to show Palestinian painters per se, but the work of world artists who are in solidarity, in a world that comes to Palestine since Palestine is imprisoned. We said, \u2018whoever is in solidarity against the occupation gives a work,\u2019 and it started like that…and since then, donations have been pouring in.”<\/p>\n

The collection includes many paintings and photographs, but also sculptures, comics, installations, and films (Jean-Luc Godard donated his last film a few months before his death). The works are chosen by the artists themselves. It is telling to observe what is donated to express support, because in this context, a work of art can no longer be defined by and for itself. It becomes almost automatically a sign, a message \u2014 a dialogue, with the Palestinian people, certainly \u2014 but above all it questions the viewer: And you, tell me, what are your thoughts, your feelings on the subject? How will you react?<\/p>\n

There are works that reflect real-life situations (checkpoints, bombing, confinement, waiting), there are messages of hope, perspectives with openings, doors, windows, holes in the wall, girls jumping over the wall, vanishing point, stairs, a maze.<\/p>\n

And then there are tributes to people. The figure who often comes up is Mahmoud Darwich, the great Palestinian poet, whose main translator was Elias Sanbar. Finally, many of the pieces reveal an inner point of view, a personal feeling, a state of being, or not being…and surreptitiously one feels the works are dialoguing with each other. Indeed, you can sense that these donated works are interconnected.<\/p>\n

In an interview with TMR, Sanbar explained, “You have to know that in Palestine daily life is hell. Not only because of the repression, the annexation of land, the harassment…but because the basis of the occupation is to make your life unbearable, impossible, with the idea that at some point, you say \u2018okay, you won, we’re leaving. The final goal is expulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanbar goes on,”The daily life of Palestinians is very, very hard. This museum must be a public museum, and the responsibility of the state is to put at the disposal of its people \u2018beautiful\u2019 works. It may sound a bit literary, but it’s fundamental. I think that beauty and aesthetics, beautiful things, are great levers of resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from museums, you find an abundance of collections in Palestine, mainly private initiatives or those carried out by non-governmental associations. Archaeological and heritage collections that safeguard national identity are the first act of resistance against the occupier. A museum of modern and contemporary art is something else again. It is a question of questioning the present in order to look to the future, as most free and sovereign countries around the world do. Tel Aviv has its\u00a0museum of \u2018modern and contemporary art,\u2019 a magnificent building with light and futuristic lines. The Palestinians do not have one. A simple observation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanbar also explains the importance of the present \u2018museum\u2019 collection for exiled Palestinians, visiting for the first time. “It is not only for the children, but also for their future prospects, to learn about the existence of a \u2018national\u2019 museum of modern and contemporary art in Palestine. This gives the illusion, even the imminent hope of the legitimacy of a State of Palestine, which unfortunately still has no legal recognition, need we remind you?\u201d [Palestine was officially recognized as a State by a majority of UN member states on Nov. 29, 2012. ED]<\/p>\n

Sanbar elaborates: \u201cAlthough very recently, the Algiers Declaration<\/a> foresees, by October 2023, elections for the presidency and for the Palestinian Legislative Council, which acts as a parliament for the Palestinians of the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. At present, Palestine is recognized as a \u2018non-member observer state\u2019 by 138 countries of the UN. And if we look closely, we realize that the French state, like the United States and many European countries, does not officially recognize independence and the State of Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2013, the European, British and French parliaments voted their support for a recognition of the Palestinian state but without this being followed up by the governments to date.\u201d<\/p>\n