Artistic Curation: Decolonizing Arts and Counter-speculations in the Gaza Strip

This curation project, led by Hala Eid Alnaji in collaboration with Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, is funded by AFAC. It is a profound initiative that reimagines the role of art and speculative thinking in dismantling colonial narratives in the Gaza Strip. Conducted between 2022 and 2023 at Al Aqsa University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, this 14-month program invited participants to interrogate and challenge the deep-seated oppressions embedded in Gaza’s social, cultural, and spatial environments.

Project Overview:

The project served as a counter-extracurricular, collective journey into exploring and reinterpreting spaces distorted by colonial and systemic oppressions. Through a blend of research, artistic exploration, and speculative practices, participants developed critical thinking and artistic interventions that challenged the prevailing boundaries imposed by colonialism.

Participants engaged in over ten intensive sessions of discussions and brainstorming that dissected critical topics such as decolonization methodologies, site writing, spatial and cognitive mapping, anti-maps, and self-reflection. The sessions sought to unveil unexamined societal layers, exploring hidden realities in personal, social, and spatial contexts. They critically examined traditional educational frameworks dominated by institutional narratives, proposing community-based alternatives to reclaim artistic and spatial agency.

Curatorial Aims:

The project aimed to:
1. Reframe colonial spatial structures into speculative, imaginative landscapes.
2. Foster communal experiences through artistic interventions that address unexamined cultural taboos and standards.
3. Provide participants with tools for critical and creative thought in the context of Palestine's socio-political struggles.


Key Highlights:
The participants collaboratively produced counter-imaginative interventions within the Gaza Strip, merging theoretical research with practical artistic expressions.
Targeted spaces and themes ranged from everyday routines, communal memories, and neglected social structures to alternative methods for reading and representing Gaza’s spatial and cultural narratives.
Through artistic provocations, the project emphasized alternative ways of envisioning decolonized futures that question the status quo and propose transformative possibilities.
This project is a testament to the power of art as a tool for resistance, self-reflection, and the reclamation of identity and space in one of the world’s most politically and socially challenging regions. It underscores the transformative role of collective engagement and speculative thinking in reshaping narratives and fostering empowerment through art.