“a system which starts at the heart”
A parallel programme of works and resources contextualising the historical and contemporary situation in Palestine.
Forensic Architecture
The Palestinian Museum, Gaza Remains the Story
Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive
The Mosaic Rooms
Forensic Architecture
Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Their mandate is to develop, employ, and disseminate new techniques, methods, and concepts for investigating state and corporate violence.
Forensic Architecture contributed their significant investigative work which presented evidence of the widespread destruction of Gaza’s civilian and health infrastructure through the interactive platforms A Cartography of Genocide: Israel’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023 and Siege on Al-Shifa Hospital, and a map of hospitals in Gaza that were forced out of service by 30 August 2024. The video ‘When it Stopped Being a War’: The Situated Testimony of Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah reconstructed the devastating explosion that took place in the courtyard of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on 17 October 2023. Dr Abu-Sittah had arrived in Gaza on 9 October 2023 to volunteer with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). He remained in Gaza for 43 days, working at al-Ahli, al-Shifa, al-Awda hospitals.
The Palestinian Museum, Gaza Remains the Story
The Palestinian Museum is a non-governmental association dedicated to supporting an open and vibrant Palestinian culture locally and internationally. The museum presents and contributes to narratives on Palestinian history, culture and society from new and critical perspectives. It also offers spaces for creative ventures, educational programmes, and innovative research.
Through their Gaza Remains the Story exhibition toolkit, they share the context of the Palestinian experience, centring the land, places, and people of Gaza. “a system which starts at the heart” included a selection from this unique project, which is available for anyone to print and make a version of the exhibition around the world. The act of displaying this material refuses the erasure of Palestine’s history and culture.
More information about their exhibition tool kit and resources can be found here.
The Palestinian Sound Archive / Majazz Project
Palestinian Sound Archive is a celebration of music, spoken word and album artwork from historic Palestine, mainly from the 1960s to 1990s. It is part of Majazz Project, a Palestinian-led record label and research platform founded by Mo’min Swaitat in 2020.
Over several years, Swaitat amassed an extensive archive of cassettes, reels and vinyl records from Palestine and beyond, spanning everything from field recordings of Bedouin weddings to revolutionary albums from the First and Second Intifadas, instrumental tracks, poetry, soul, folk songs and jazz.
Palestinian Sound Archive was born out of the archive and is focused on sampling, remixing and reissuing vintage Palestinian and Arab albums. During the exhibition these sonic journey’s played throughout the upstairs space, along with a vitrine of old cassette tapes and posters.
To listen to more online please follow this link and keep an eye out for Mo’min’s in person listening sessions.
The Mosaic Rooms
The Mosaic Rooms is a leading non-profit arts organisation and bookshop dedicated to supporting and promoting contemporary culture from the Arab world and beyond in London. Established in 2009, as a project of the A.M Qattan Foundation, they dedicate their work to championing creative and critical voices that are often underrepresented.
Believing in the importance of creating a cultural space that is invested in building communities, presenting new thinking and daring creativity, inspiring experimentation, and interrogating contemporary issues around social justice.
Part of this work has always been to platform creative voices from Palestine. As part of the programme they contributed a specially curated reading area, including recent books on Palestinian art, culture and politics, and literary works.
You can download the reading list here and purchase the books from The Mosaic Rooms bookshop in Kensington, or via their website.
