We’d like to share the following from our...

We’d like to share the following from our friends at the Bristol Palestine Film Festival:

A stunning mural by the Gaza-born Palestinian artist Malak Mattarhas been painted in Bristol as part of the Bristol Palestine Film Festival (BPFF), and will be on display on the PRSC HQ wall on Jamaica Street throughout February.

The mural marks 11 years of the Bristol Palestine Film Festival, a celebration of Palestinian culture and the power of international solidarity. It is the second mural in the BPFF Artist in Absence series. The festival took place in December in four venues across the city with an ambitious cultural line-up including a theatre performance, nine feature-length films and five shorts, showcasing a range of contemporary stories and experiences from Palestine and the region. The mural was brought to life by an all-female team of local artists, including the Bristol Womxn Mural Collective (BWMC)and UWE student volunteers studying art. They were supported by Benoit Bennett, an established Bristol artist and Director of The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft. Painting of the mural took place on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th January. The mural project has been made possible with support from the UWE Bristol Community FundandQuartet Community Foundation.

“We are thrilled to be able to share Malak’s work with the Bristol public through this specially commissioned artwork,” says Karena Batstone from the BPFF team"and we would like to thank all of those involved for this successful collaboration. This mural presents an alternative vision of Gaza–richly cultured, intricate, and complex–with doves of peace surrounding a defiant female figure in traditional dress. With her camera she engages the viewer and invites us to hear her story. Malak is delighted that our mural on Jamaica Street is in ’dialogue’with Mr Cenz’s ’United Souls, United Goals’ mural in nearby Stokes Croft,with its message of ’rise up and stand tall’. As the solidarity between the BLM and Palestinian Liberation movements continues to grow, it illustrates the vital role that art has to play.

More info here.