Charity art exhibition for Palestinian children opens in Cairo: 'This is the least that we can do'

More than 60 established and emerging artists take part in the show, with proceeds going to the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation

Artwork on display at the ArtTalks gallery in Egypt. Nada El Sawy / The National

Two pieces from Egyptian artist Adel El Siwi are part of the collection. Nada El Sawy / The National

Hossam Dirar’s ‘Queen Fawzeya’ oil painting is on sale for $9,600. Nada El Sawy / The National

A 2021 piece by Souad Mardam Bey, right, is on sale for $14,000. Nada El Sawy / The National

A piece by Injy Efflatoun (top left), Walid Ebeid’s ‘Unruly Palestine’ (bottom left) and Alaa Awad’s ‘The Farewell’ are also available to buy. Nada El Sawy / The National

The gallery was founded by Fatten Mostafa-Kanafani, a lecturer and art historian. Courtesy Fatten Mostafa-Kanafani

The Cairo-based art space is dedicated to Egyptian artists and Egyptian art history. Nada El Sawy / The National

George Bahgoury’s ‘Al-Rakassa’ is on sale for $10,000. Nada El Sawy / The National

Founded in 2009, the gallery works with a range of emerging and mid-career artists. Nada El Sawy / The National

ArtTalks also funds an educational programme that includes seminars on the history of Egyptian art. Nada El Sawy / The National

It is a few minutes before 1pm on Tuesday at the Art Talks Egypt gallery in Cairo and founder Fatenn Mostafa-Kanafani is busily putting the finishing touches on a charity exhibition featuring 65 artists in support of the children of Palestine.

One artist arrives with a painting that is yet to be framed and another comes in with freshly printed T-shirts featuring a drawing of the late Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian author and leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was assassinated in 1972.

Mostafa-Kanafani, whose husband is the nephew of the Palestinian activist, says she and her team put the show together in a handful of days in light of the recent violence in Gaza.

Devastating Israeli airstrikes during the 11-day conflict killed more than 240 Gazans, including 66 children, destroyed hundreds of buildings and forced more than 100,000 people from their homes. Two children and eight adults in Israel were also killed by rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, according to health officials.

"I think a lot of us were feeling helpless as to what we can do to help," Mostafa-Kanafani tells The National. "We had to come up with a creative idea and, at the end of the day, art is one means of resisting and making a statement."

Scroll through the gallery above to see some of the artworks donated to the exhibition.

She started contacting many established and emerging artists in Egypt, some she knew and some she had never met before, and “the response was overwhelming”.

Every piece from the show is on sale with all of the proceeds – 50 per cent from the artists and 50 per cent matched by an anonymous donor – going to the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organisation established in 1974 to support Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

The foundation has six kindergartens, two habilitation centres, three children’s libraries, an art centre and clubs within or near Palestinian refugee camps.

“This is not political fundraising. This is humanitarian fundraising to salvage the dramatic consequences that so many Palestinian kids are suffering from,” Mostafa-Kanafani says.

The name of the exhibition, Doko al Jidran (Knock on the Walls), refers to a powerful scene in Kanafani's 1962 novel Men in the Sun.

In the book, three Palestinians hide in an empty water tank in the back of a lorry to be smuggled across the border in search of a better life away from occupation. Before they reach their final destination, the driver opens the tank only to find they have died in silence.

The driver shouts: “Why didn’t you knock on the tank’s walls? Why? Why? Why?”

“The idea here is that we, the artists of Egypt, are knocking on the walls so that people can hear Palestinians’ struggles and tragedy,” explains Mostafa-Kanafani.

The 85 artworks range in price from 4,500 Egyptian pounds ($290) to €22,000 ($26,950), as artists opt to price their works in different currencies.

If all are sold, the proceeds will total $310,000. That excludes a 1970 piece by the Egyptian painter and women's activist Inji Efflatoun donated by a private collector, which would add another $150,000.

The most expensive piece from a living artist is 2020's Lost Heritage by multimedia Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr, a floral geometric design made up of 10,000 matches covered by plexiglass.

"This is the least that we can do," Nasr, 59, tells The National. Palestinians "are not even treated as second-class citizens … This kind of discrimination – making a difference between one human being and another – is really something very, very bad."

Egyptian artist Huda Lutfi, 73, contributed a painting of a woman meditating, selling for $770.

“I was very enthusiastic about participating because I think the situation in Gaza is terrible, and a lot of harm has been done to them,” Lutfi says.

Other well-known Egyptian artists taking part in the exhibition include Ahmed Morsi, Adel El Siwi, George Bahgory, Mohamed Abla and the estate of Hamed Abdalla.

A few of the pieces showcased allude to the Palestinian cause, such as two oil paintings by Shadi Alzaqzouq, a Palestinian contemporary artist born in Libya.

“I’m really touched by the response,” Mostafa-Kanafani says. “The artists are donating works that are very dear to them because they believe in the cause.”

The exhibition at Art Talks Egypt runs until Friday, June 25 or until all pieces are sold. A catalogue is at www.arttalks.com and buyers can contact the gallery for shipment worldwide