On July 8, 2014, Israel launched military strikes on Gaza resulting in the two nations engaged in war for 51 days. In response, Mahnoor Yar Khan, a drama therapist, created Gaza 51 comprising an exhibition at Karnataka Chithrakala Parishath, talks and performance.
Mahnoor, who has been working with different sections of the society in Gaza for over 25 years says the art works express the pain and anguish of the youngsters there.
The pencil sketches, digital works, paintings and photographs were not created for any exhibition. They had resulted from their engagement with Culture and Free Thought Association, an NGO based in Gaza Strip that works for social development. “Their immediate need is to express themselves, try and inhale and get over the trauma,” Mahnoor says. “Malak Mattar is 15 years old and she paints all the time. She feels that it is the only way she can overcome the trauma. The need to show and exhibit comes later.”
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Mahnoor decided to give a platform to these expressions and also familiarise the world with the realities of Gaza. “I have been to universities and realised that so many of us don’t know what is happening there. They don’t know where Gaza is. So, I travel with the map and show them its geographical location.”
Almost all of the artists whose works are on display have experienced all the three Gaza wars or at least one of them. And unlike their elders they don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. “The situation is grim. Three wars have taken place and they are waiting for the next. They feel there is no life there. The young are depressed and have taken to drugs. Suicides have gone up.”
The melancholy reflects in the 31 works that are on display and 22 additional works, Mahnoor has brought along. Only the intensity varies. Be it a pencil sketch of a grim faced young girl behind the fence or a father with a dead child, or a photograph of a group of youngsters playing volleyball against a building that has been devastated by shelling, the works in the exhibition subtly and overtly convey the agony of the people in Gaza.
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The drama therapist says the children mature very quickly and don’t hesitate having discussions about anything under the sun. Normalcy is nothing but a necessity. “It could be as normal as having a wedding while bombing is going on in another area. Kids go to school. They wear their uniforms, leave on time and their parents know they might not come back.”
Apart from the exhibition, Mahnoor in collaboration with Maara has brought a gamut of events to the city. They have screened films such as Omar followed by discussions, read from letters Mahnoor’s friend had written to her telling her she is alive and today at 1 Shanti Road, Tripura Kashyap will give a performance set to American-Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad’s verse.
The exhibition has travelled to Hyderabad and will be soon going to Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
(Gaza 51 is on display at CKP, Kumara Krupa Road, till July 9)