Jasper van Putten

The Art world has no backbone when it comes to Palestine. In 2023, for instance,  Ai Wei Wei, the art world’s darling whose provocative and conscientious political work is always good for a juicy scandal, was canceled for one single tweet about the genocide in Gaza. The art world’s response: … nil, nada, zero. This favorite dissident, revered for his critique of his homeland China, just disappeared from the scene without this causing a scandal among his peers, galleries, museums, or collectors. Ai Wei Wei’s fate was shared by many artists who spoke up about Palestine. Even more stayed silent out of fear. This exhibition seeks to address this climate head on. Where, we ask, is the art world’s backbone?

In search for the art world’s backbone, we may look at the art that does provoke a scandal. Gallery walls, of course, still find room for the occasional fruit-based provocation. A banana taped to a wall makes headlines across the world. But where is the art that addresses the so-called “controversial” topics that actually plague our world today yet hardly elicit any artistic response in whitewashed spaces? Where are the exhibitions about the siege, starvation, and systemic erasure of the Palestinian people and their history and culture? We are not here to condemn your occasional pleasure in fruit-based provocations. We are here to mix up the fruit. Watermelons, we insist, are just as beautiful, interesting, at times scandalous, and delicious, as bananas. Come see art that doesn’t ignore what’s just a few taps away on your phone! Palestine is beautiful and art about Palestine can be beautiful, interesting, and engaging. We are not lying, when we explicitly say: “this is not a watermelon.” Come see what it may be.