Ramallah / Qais Abu Samra / Anadolu

The Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah, in the central West Bank, is preparing to host an exhibition by Turkish artist Ahmet Yusuf Aytekin that documents Palestinian memory and the effects of Israel's genocide war on the Gaza Strip.

Titled 'Letters to the Olive Tree in Exile,' the exhibition will run from July 26 to August 2, according to a statement by the organizers.

The statement said the exhibition is supported by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) and coordinated by artistic supervisor Samet Karagöz, highlighting the role of art in preserving memory and documenting testimony amid the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

It added that the exhibition was previously hosted by the P21 gallery in London before moving to Turkey's Konya as part of the Islamic Cooperation Youth Capital events, and now comes to the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah.

Aytekin's works address themes of displacement, loss, and resistance through a visual language based on contemplation and evoking absence, avoiding direct reproduction of violent scenes.

According to the statement, each painting becomes a letter addressed to the olive tree, a symbol of steadfastness, rootedness, and resistance in Palestinian memory.

It noted that the exhibition evokes the widespread destruction of residential neighborhoods, displacement of populations, and targeting of civilian life that Gaza has witnessed since October 2023.

Aytekin's works do not aim to depict scenes of destruction directly, but rather to document the psychological and emotional aftermath of the war, forming a 'visual archive' against attempts to erase Palestinian memory, according to the statement.

The exhibition also features works inspired by the poems of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, adding a symbolic dimension to its being held in the museum that bears his name, where poems and artworks intersect in evoking memory, identity, and place.

On October 8, 2023, Israel, with US support, began a genocide war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of over 73,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 173,000, mostly children and women, along with widespread destruction and mass displacement.

Aytekin, born in Istanbul in 1989, is among the young Turkish artists whose work focuses on memory, identity, and place.

The artist has held solo exhibitions in Turkey and participated in international art fairs and events, including Contemporary Istanbul and Christie's Dubai.