Mural at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, MAIA Mural Brigade

SEE ALL THE MURALS AND MORE AT

www.Maiamuralproject.org

Al-Shati was established in 1948 for about 23,000 Palestinians fleeing the cities of Jaffa, Lod and Beersheba as well as surrounding villages.

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Painting with Local Artists at the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza City

Gaza City, Palestine—-As the news of the Flotilla and “Flytilla” bring messages of solidarity to Gaza through the twittersphere I sit overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, almost lying in wait. I’m not the only one.

I’m here as part of an artist collective called the “Maia Mural Brigade” in conjunction with the Estria Foundation’s #Water Writes Project and Break the Silence Mural and Art Project and our aim is to collaborate with local artists to paint public murals about water conditions affecting the people of Palestine.

We’re lined up to paint 8 murals in the next 7 days on water filtration systems at schools providing potable water for residents of the Gaza Strip. We meet with Dr. Mona El Farra, Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance Maia (Water) Project, which fundraises for and implements the filters, she is our community liaison here. We sit on her porch and discuss the details—Drinking Mango nectar, eating cucumbers and pita with hummus it’s easy to forget we’re steps away from piles of rubble that were people’s homes before the siege.

Dr. Mona’s approach is warm, and open, “I won’t tell you what to paint…Artists need have space to fly.” She sends us to schools to gather content for our murals from the children of Gaza. We bring crayons and questions, and leave with drawings and stories. They draw about raw sewage spilling into the sea where the treatment plant stood before the bombs began to fall. They show us sketches of rain and clouds, fishermen and boats, soldiers and warships, drinking water and growing plants.

“You can’t separate art from politics” Dr. Mona tells us.

So we will paint, knowing that our work will speak to people whose basic needs are not being met. Hoping that our images translate their reality to the world and pull solidarity over the sea.

The Flotilla and Flytilla have both been stopped by Israel in one way or another. My colleagues and I are witnessing what the 800 activists and committed cultural workers from across the world were denied the ability to see.

As I sit here, in the lobby overlooking the sea. My mind goes to what Ive seen, drawing inspiration for art. Tomorrow we paint, and begin the first in a series of 8 murals. These 8 murals will stand as our statement, we will testify via our craft. Bearing witness to Gaza. The Message: Give these people the water they deserve and need.

~Josue Rojas
New American Media

Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project
4000 Square Feet of Multi-Media International Solidarity

300 Participants From Across Movements and Continents

www.olympiarafahmural.org

Corner of State and Capital Streets, on historic Labor Temple Builing, Olympia WA, USA

To Hear the Mural Talk go to www.oympiarafahmural.org

The Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project is an inter-disciplinary, interactive, multi-site public art project centered around the theme of building solidarity between people on a global scale. Inspired in part by the life of Rachel Corrie, the mural is a memorial to her and the many hundreds of thousands of other lives lost in the quest for justice. The project  in part carries out her dream of building a sister city relationship between Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine, where she was killed in 2003,  and Olympia, Washington, USA, where she was born and raised. 23 year old Rachel was committing and act of civil disobedience, trying to protect the home and family of a Palestinian doctor, when she was crushed to death by 9 foot bulldozer.

The project uses  culture and technology in innovative ways to build community and to organize for social change.  Each image in the tree will have audio files accessible by cell phone introducing themselves and explaining their leaf.  There may also be  music or a poem, etc to give a cultural flavor to the image and its authors.

The miracle of the mural in a day…

Our fourth companion arrived late last night and we are bringing him up to speed. He is impressed with the size of our canvas and the headway we’ve made with our design, but we still had a lot of work to do and we were anxious about gridding the wall and getting some of the designs laid out on the building.

Thankfully we had support from Zeina, one of the Conservatory director’s daughters. More photos will be posted in Edward Said National Conservatory of Music photo album.

The plan is for different Palestinian artists to fill in the silhouettes and international artists  or those not able to participate on the ground, will contribute designs for the notes on the musical staffs which will be the musical notation for Biladi (“My Country“) the National Anthem of Palestine and Mawtini (“My Homeland”), another unofficial national ballad of Palestine.

The plastering has dried and we have scaffolding! Amazing!

Our dear comrade Amjad, the groundskeeper at the Conservatory, is busy priming the building while we continue to adjust the design and meet with various Palestinian artists who we’ve invited to participate in the painting of the mural.

Also, after visiting and meeting more than one handful of paint store owners and having many cups of coffee while discussing the paint options we finally succeeded in finding one that carries acrylic paint and will bring it from Jerusalem. Nearly a week into the project, we are more than relieved to have found the paint! John arrives tomorrow! So exciting.

We visited the village of Bil’in today and met with Mohammed Khatib and Eyad Bornat from the Popular Committee against the Wall. Since 2005, the people of Bil’in have been protesting the construction of the Wall in their village with participation from Israeli and international activists as well as Palestinians from around Palestine. The construction of the Wall has resulted in the de-facto annexation of 2,400 dunums of land
(600 acres) – over 50% of the land belonging to the village facilitating massive Israeli settlement expansion east of the Green Line.

Next week will be the 3rd Annual International Conference on the Joint Popular Struggle. The image chosen for the Conference is a cartoon by Palestinian cartoonist Naser Al Jafari that appeared in Al Quds newspaper after an action in which the people of Bil’in chained themselves to the olive trees, that were slated to be uprooted (for a video of this action click here).

While our original idea was to paint something on the ‘outpost’ the villagers built on their land which lies on the other side of the Wall in protest of the illegal Israeli settlements being built on their land, the Palestinians in Bil’in preferred that we paint in a more visible building in the village. So we will paint next week before the beginning of the Conference on the majlis or the Village Council.

We’re looking forward to it!

We arrived Sunday evening to the town of Bir Zeit, just north of Ramallah. Our kind and generous hosts at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music have done an amazing job at preparing for our mural work on the 100 ft. by 35 ft. facade of the building which once housed the women’s dormitories of Bir Zeit University. The building has more than 50 rooms with 2-4 beds in each one and serves as a retreat for the music institute as well as other cultural educational and organizational use.

The wall itself will be perfect once the diligent workers (Zeiad and Abbas) finish plastering and we get the primer laid down in the coming days. Today we are off to find paint and supplies and get our bearings.

More to come soon! Check out our pictures on the side in the “Edward Said National Conservatory of Music” folder!