A gallery against the "genocide in Gaza"

In a ruined building near Lisbon, a gallery against the "genocide in Gaza" is being born.

The gallery's opening will be on Saturday and will feature artists from various fields, journalists, and members of organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and Parents for Peace.
A ruined building in Póvoa de Santa Iria, just outside Lisbon, has served as a canvas for more than 50 artists in recent weeks, creating a temporary gallery to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

On the walls of the Red Zone Gallery, which Lusa visited last week and will open on Saturday, are portraits, phrases, and graphic compositions, featuring the colors of the Palestinian flag—black, green, red, and white. The Palestinian flag, the keffiyeh scarf, and the watermelon, symbols of Palestinian resistance, as well as the white dove, which represents Peace, are common in several paintings. Vhils, Bordalo II, Akacorleone, Tamara Alves, c'marie, Gonçalo Mar, the duo Halfstudio, Miguel Januário (±), Jaime Ferraz, Jorge Charrua, Rita Ravasco, Sepher AWK, Mafalda MG, and António Alves are some of the artists involved in the project.

The genesis of this temporary gallery is a mural by João Pereira, who signs Bugster and guided Lusa on a tour of the space.

It all started with the desire to paint a mural that addressed what was happening in the Gaza Strip, with which I intended to "challenge people's attention."

I was going to paint it on the street, but since I couldn't find a wall with the dimensions I wanted, João Pereira ended up creating it in the building where the Red Zone Gallery was founded, which he already knew and where "I could be in peace."

In a place known and frequented mainly by local youth, but also by members of the graffiti community, he managed to spend three days painting undisturbed.

At the end, he approached three teenagers who were there and asked what they thought of the work, what they saw, and what it conveyed to them.

The dialogue he had with them spurred him on to want more. He shared the idea with some artists he was closest to, explaining to them what he had done and where, that there was more space, and that everyone could join in painting one day.

He photographed all the available walls, although there were also interventions on beams, columns, and even the floor, and divided the spaces, which he numbered and "reserved."

Since one day wasn't enough for them to do everything, one meeting was extended to several. Some artists invited others, and the spaces were quickly assigned.

Over the past few weeks, at different times and on different days, the more than 50 artists have been intervening in the space, which "communicates a message stronger than all the pieces and works."

The building where the gallery was founded, abandoned for at least two decades, is "a destroyed place and in need of destruction." With the appropriate distances, it's almost as if the exhibition is taking place in the place they want the world to see.

"We took this room as if we wanted to do an exhibition in Gaza. How could we do it? Maybe in a place similar to this, in a more optimistic setting," said João Pereira.

One of the goals is for the Red Zone Gallery to be "a place of conversation, of dialogue." "That's the basis of our approach, creating things that start conversations," he said.

At the entrance to the Red Zone Gallery, at the top of a staircase, an explanatory text and a drawing of a Palestinian child, made in Gaza, were placed, serving as a starting point for what the visitor will see.

On the opening day, between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm, there will be talks on, for example, "the power of artistic expression in building awareness of the Palestinian cause" and "the role of the media in covering the Palestinian genocide, the impact of the deaths of journalists, and the formation of public opinion." These talks will feature artists from various fields, journalists, and members of organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Parents for Peace, and the MPPM—Movement for the Rights of the Palestinian People and for Peace in the Middle East.

Saturday's program also includes a group listening session of a podcast by the independent media project Fumaça, performances, and a guided tour by artists.

After the sun sets, there will be musical performances, but at a different location: the Fernando Augusto Cultural Space, also in Póvoa de Santa Iria.

Starting at 8:00 pm, performances will include, among others, singers Jüra and Cristina Clara, rappers Buda XL, Riça, Tilt, and Maze, and producer Spock.

On the day Lusa visited the Red Zone Gallery, two artists were working: Palestinian Dima Abu Sbeitan, one of the founders of the Seeds of Hope educational project, created to support children in Gaza.

Dima was born in Jordan, raised in Oman, and lived for thirteen years in the United States, a country she left three years ago for Portugal, specifically Lisbon.

Dima's work at Red Zone Gallery is divided into three sections. In one, she painted Gaza's 'red zone,' "an area ready to be bombed and slaughtered at the push of a button." In another, she decided to "honor the press, the journalists who were killed, for reporting stories and telling the truth," and in the third, she wrote messages that reached her from Gaza.

In constant contact with Palestinians living in Gaza, Dima heard phrases like "I want to wake up happy," shared by a ten-year-old child, "I wish I had loved whoever I wanted," "I wish I could have traveled," "I wish I could eat whatever I want."

The artist's desire is "to see justice prevail and Israel brought before justice and the international community, and the laws enforced."

"Gaza needs the genocide to stop. Gaza needs the international community to take a stand and stand by international law. Gaza needs people to speak out and for justice to prevail and to have the right to live like everyone else in this world. Gaza needs freedom, healthcare, food," he told Lusa.

Dima hopes, asks, and wishes for the "genocide" to end soon, but remembers that until that happens, the population "is dying before everyone's eyes" and "every day it gets worse and worse."

The Israeli offensive, which an independent UN commission and a growing number of countries and international organizations classify as "genocide," has already caused more than 65,500 deaths in the Gaza Strip, the destruction of almost all of Gaza's infrastructure, and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Israel has also imposed a blockade on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave, where more than 400 people, most of them children, have already died of hunger and malnutrition.

João Pereira believes that, after the opening on Saturday, every day that the Red Zone Gallery continues to exist "is a victory for the project."

The location of the Red Zone Gallery is being spread by word of mouth, "through those already involved in the project."
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