"Alia Zaki, a WFP communication consultant, tells The Art Newspaper that the idea for the exhibition came when colleagues saw one of Muhanna's works, painted on a WFP aid box, around a year ago. "At the time those parcels and the food that WFP was providing was more or less the only way that people in Gaza had access to food," says Zaki from Copenhagen, where the exhibition is currently showing."
"Over three intense months, often under the constant threat of bombings, Muhanna created 40 paintings on WFP aid boxes and more than 20 pieces on paper for the show, capturing the harsh realities around him: displacement, famine and queues for water. "Every time I picked up the brush, the shelling would shake the walls around me. Sometimes I painted by candlelight," Muhanna tells The Art Newspaper, adding, "but art was my small window to breathe, my only space to hold on to my humanity.""
The United Nations World Food Programme launched a travelling exhibition of paintings by Gazan artist Ahmed Muhanna using WFP humanitarian aid boxes as canvases. Gaza: Stories of Hope and Resilience features more than 40 box paintings and opened on 15 September in Brussels, touring nine European cities until 23 October. The exhibition idea originated after colleagues noticed a work painted on a WFP aid box about a year earlier. Over three intense months, often under the threat of bombings and sometimes by candlelight, Muhanna produced 40 box paintings and over 20 paper works depicting displacement, famine and queues for water. WFP teams in Gaza and Belgium collaborated on the project, which received EU funding; the EU has contributed €86 million to WFP since October 2023.
Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events
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