PNN – A Palestinian painter has turned the remains of his home’s walls into a canvas to depict Israeli crimes in Gaza.
According to Aye Judeh, a reporter in the Gaza Strip, Adnan Abu Yousef, a Palestinian painter and cultural activist living in Khan Yunis in the center of the Gaza Strip, is once again using the tools of art to convey the message of resistance and struggle against the occupation from the ruins of his home, not only as an artist, but also as a witness to one of the most painful crimes of humanity in modern times.
When he returned to his home after enduring months of displacement caused by the recent war, he discovered that the occupying forces had burned not only the walls of the house but also all of his artistic possessions from previous years, leaving nothing but black, burnt walls.
In response to this violence, Adnan took up his brush and painted the true face of the Zionist regime and its crimes on these black walls. He says that his goal with his art is not to beautify these destructions and crimes, but to expose the realities of the suffering and hardship of the occupation in Gaza.
Describing the atmosphere of his artistic and family life before the start of the recent war, Abu Yousef says: Inside this house, I had a fully equipped painting studio. My studio was in a garden among pine trees and hedges, and the sounds of birds could be heard. I always lived with the sounds of nature… I had a normal, peaceful life, away from the hustle and bustle of machine life… Everything was almost normal. Fortunately, I had all the paints and materials I needed for painting at my disposal and was able to buy them… I also had canvas, wood, and painting materials. Before the war and displacement began, I had painted 42 paintings of natural landscapes.
In this war, Adnan lost not only his household belongings and memories, but also his eldest son, “Martyr Ahed Adnan Abu Yousef,” who was one of the fighters of the Palestinian resistance. In this way, the blood of this martyr becomes the paintings of his father, and the sorrow and pain of this suffering father becomes a cry in the field of art that disgraces the world.
Describing his first encounter with the ruins of his home after returning to it, the Palestinian artist says: When I returned home, I was faced with black, burnt paintings. My birds were all burnt. All the paintings had been set on fire, nothing remained but the blackness and scorch marks on the wooden frames of the paintings. This incident came as a huge shock to me. Tears of hatred and sadness welled up in my eyes, because these were not just paintings, but rather a representation of my artistic journey and activity, which began when I was 16 years old and continues to this day, when I returned home. These paintings were a kind of assessment of how my artistic path was formed and evolved, showing my painting style from the beginning of my career to the present day.
Standing in front of the burnt walls inside his house, Adnan Abu Yousef did not remain silent in the face of this fate, but rose again from the ashes and did not deviate from his path and goals. These days, he teaches his two daughters, Sama and Sawar, how to portray the truth without any taint.
Adnan even shouts to the world in one of his paintings titled “The Killing of Infants”: This crime will never be forgotten, we are here and we will stay, even if only burnt and black walls remain of our homes.
After enduring a period of forced displacement, Adnan Abu Yousef has now returned to his home in one of the neighborhoods of Khan Yunis to prove to everyone, amidst the ruins of his home, that the voice and art of a Palestinian will never be silenced, despite the most difficult conditions caused by war.