Art Jameel, an organisation that supports artists and creative communities, announces the opening of Eltiqa: How to Work Together?, guest-curated by The Question of Funding collective(on view from February 6 to July 20, 2025) at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai. The exhibition features more than 100 artworks by Gaza-based artist collective Eltiqa (Arabic for “encounter”) – safeguarded over the years by a trusted network of individuals and institutions across the world; while some works had been exhibited internationally and remained with institutions and individuals due to the difficulty of returning them to Gaza, others are more recent and were hand carried out in late 2023 by members of the collective during the ongoing genocide. Eltiqa artists are Mohamed Abusal, Abdel Raouf Al-Ajouri, Mohammed Al-Hawajri, Raed Issa, Dina Matar and Sohail Salem.
Part of a long-term collaboration between The Question of Funding and Eltiqa, the exhibition includes an annotated timeline that traces the history of Eltiqa – the collective’s formation and early days, their efforts at creating structures of support for themselves and others, and the historical, political and personal events that have marked their lives as a collective and as artists. Through anecdotes recounted by members of Eltiqa and research conducted by The Question of Funding, the displayed narratives accentuate Eltiqa’s practice and survival amid political, social, economic and personal distress. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication which collates and documents the story of a community that has managed to overcome years of systemic oppression.
Nora Razian, Deputy Director and Head of Exhibitions and Programmes, said: “We are honoured and grateful to have been able to bring together and present so many of Eltiqa’s works in one place, enabling a deeper understanding of their work and influence, both as artists and also as a fundamental part of the cultural ecosystem in Gaza. This exhibition and the extensive research that accompanies it, is part of Art Jameel’s longterm mandate of producing discursive exhibitions and programmes grounded in our wider region. During this time of incredible grief and turmoil, it is vital to foreground, and celebrate, Palestinian stories and histories.”
The Question of Funding is a collective of artists and cultural producers from Palestine and beyond. It researches the economic structures of art and aims to produce new economic models for cultural production. A previous iteration of the exhibition was conceived for documenta15 (2022); the new, expanded exhibition at the Jameel accounts for personal and political upheavals in Gaza and the artists’ individual lives since then.
Press release from Art Jameel
Image: Dina Matar. Summer of Gaza. 2016. Image courtesy of the artist
