The exhibition "The Land and I" by Nabil Anani takes place at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai from September 29, 2024, to January 12, 2025. This exhibition showcases Anani’s colorful and textured landscapes, celebrating Palestine in an idealized form, free from occupation, without barriers or checkpoints. Anani uses natural materials such as wood, straw, dried herbs, and spices to physically anchor his works in the land he represents, making the land a central and living element of his paintings.
The exhibition offers a meditation on the spiritual and physical relationship between Palestinians and their environment. For Anani, the Palestinian land is not just a backdrop but an active participant in the struggle for freedom. His works erase the boundary between people and the land, merging the two into a unique entity with a shared history, present, and future.
Some key works to discover:
« The Herd » : This painting illustrates Nabil Anani’s attachment to the Palestinian land. Unlike realistic landscapes of Ramallah, his paintings are colorful and idealized visions of a harmonious Palestine, free from the barriers and checkpoints imposed by the occupation. This dreamlike approach allows Anani to imagine the Palestinian land as he dreams it, at peace with nature.
Kafr Qaddum: Anani shows that the Palestinian land is not just a simple backdrop but a narrative element of Palestine’s history, marked by the quest for freedom. He highlights the organic relationship between Palestinians and their natural environment, a relationship disrupted by the occupation. The painting serves as a visual testimony to this interrupted connection, while aspiring to a future of liberation.
« Zayta » : This work presents an idyllic pastoral scene that reimagines Palestine as a living being. Anani erases the boundaries between people and the land, uniting them into a single entity with a shared history, present, and future. For him, the land is not only a silent witness but an active agent in the Palestinian struggle, reminding us that heritage and memory are rooted in the landscape itself.
Nabil Anani, born in 1943, is a renowned Palestinian artist and one of the pioneers of modern art in Palestine. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria and has dedicated his career to representing Palestinian identity and culture through various mediums, including painting, sculpture, and installations. Since the First Intifada, he has used local materials to create works that intimately connect Palestinians to their land while symbolically opposing cultural erasure attempts.