An exhibition for prominent palestinian artist Khaled Hourani, 200 Watermelons in Beirut. The exhibition is called 'Resilience'. 50% of the revenues will be donated to the palestinian red cross. The artworks were shipped from Ramallah Palestian.    

Khaled Hourani is a prominent Palestinian artist. He is well known for his Watermelon Flag that he created in 2007. Khaled said ‘’First Intifada was an artistic project’’.

In 2013, Khaled was awarded the Creative Time Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, in New York City. In 2014, he had a major retrospective at the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.

In 2011, project Picasso in Palestine, Hourani borrowed Picasso’s painting from the Van Abbemuseum, The Netherlands, to display it in Ramallah.

Hourani initiated a scheme aimed at connecting the world of modern and contemporary art with the unstable realities of Palestine.

The forbidden colors

DID YOU KNOW?

Palestinians used watermelon

As a symbol of their resistance

Military Order 101, of the occupation began arresting

Palestinian artists for using

The Forbidden Colors

Red, White Green & Black in their artworks!

In 1980, during an art exhibition in Ramallah, occupation forces stormed the gallery, confiscated paintings and arrested Palestinian artists Sliman Mansour, Nabil Anani and Issam Badr.

Mansour recalls, "we were summoned by the occupation authorities & read us orders of the prohibition of the use of red green black and white colors, and that any painting that includes these colors will be confiscated."

Confronting the officer, Badr asked, "What if I just want to paint a watermelon? to which he replied,

"It would be confiscated".

The watermelon has become a powerful symbol of Palestinian resistance and resilience.

Resistance through art has a long-standing history in Palestine, but so do attacks on Palestinian culture Targeting of artists and cultural spaces is a tactic used by occupying forces to erase identity.

"Some people even deny our existence, deny Palestinian culture

and identity, so art fights this. It gives a home for the homeless"

Sliman Mansour