Ramallah- Ma’an- Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah will open an exhibition by Palestinian artist Mahmoud Al-Hajj on Tuesday, July 30, at 7 p.m., titled “Anatomy of Control.” The exhibition, curated by Rana Anani, addresses the violence of the colonizer and the mechanisms of domination over Palestinian geography through the eyes of an artist born and raised in Gaza.
In his artwork, Al-Hajj explores the oppressive methods and structures used over the years to subjugate Palestinians, culminating in the ongoing genocide and atrocities in the Gaza Strip, where violence and tools of control have been magnified beyond imagination. Al-Hajj employs multiple digital media including collage, photography and printmaking, using a unique style that demonstrates a high level of skill and precision in employing the digital archive and dealing with detail.
The exhibition consists of a group of projects that the artist completed recently, including: ‘Violence Around the Clock,’ ‘402 from the Grey,’ and ‘Fragile.’* He relies on imag
es that ‘reflect the insane flow of violent events’ around him as an artist. He selects images that ‘have lost their luster in the eyes of viewers and have vanished through the back doors of internet search engines,’ and images that ‘have repercussions on himself and those around him,’ which he treats and presents in a contemporary artistic narrative.
Al-Hajj says about constructing his artistic narrative: I rely on visually and conceptually dissecting low-quality images related to human rights violations, violence, and colonial strategies. Then I reconstruct them through an intensive digital process, ensuring the creation of new digital work that offers unexpected results, open to diverse interpretations. This includes combining them with images/materials from other sources, such as Google Maps, aerial reconnaissance footage, and empty medicine bottles.
Mahmoud Al-Hajj was born in 1990. He holds a BA in Journalism and has been working as a visual arts teacher at the Palestine Red Crescent Society since 201
7. Al-Hajj has produced 6 projects between photography, digital art and video, which have been widely exhibited in Palestine, Europe and the United States. In 2022, his experimental short film ‘The Right to Look’ was screened at the 35th Les Instants Video Festival in Marseille, and in 2021 the film participated in the Cairo Video Festival in conjunction with a duo exhibition of the same name at Plaatsmaken Studio in the Netherlands in collaboration with Rob Foreman.
Al-Hajj organized his first solo exhibition (402 of the Grey) in Gaza, and his solo exhibition (Violence around the Clock) at Uxval Gochez Gallery in Barcelona in 2024. He also participated in a number of group exhibitions such as (Fenced Off) at the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2022, (ART NOW) at Gallery One in 2021, (Art in isolation) at the Middle East Institute in Washington in 2020, (Contemplative Contrasts) at the A.M. Qattan Foundation and (Orient 2.0) at Pulchri Studio in the Netherlands in 2017, and a solo exhibition enti
tled ‘Violence around the Clock’ at Uxval Gochez Gallery in Barcelona in 2024.
In 2021 he completed two artistic residencies at the Royal Spanish Academy in Rome and the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He recently completed his residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Source: Maan News Agency