Cry for Freedom

HUNDREDS of images which capture the doom of occupation are to go on show in Manchester.

Desert Generation is a joint exhibition of Israeli and Palestinian artists who oppose the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Premiered in the UK at Manchester Metropolitan University from April 10, the exhibition shows hundreds of photographs, paintings and drawings sent via e-mail by artists in response to a call distributed throughout the Middle-East by electronic chain letter.

The images received were printed in size A4 and hung on the gallery walls, without editing or selection.

Six Days War

Desert Generation (1967-2007) opened at the Jerusalem Artists’ House on June 5, 2007, the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war, and, mirroring the conflict, lasted six days. Later that month it reopened at the Kibbutz Art Gallery, Tel Aviv. It has shown once in Europe, in November in Amsterdam.

Organised by Larry Abramson, David Tartakover, Sliman Mansour and David Reeb, the initiative brings together Jews and Arabs and has no affiliation to political movements.

Larry Abramson said: "These images represent a generation of Israeli and Palestinian artists doomed to waste their best years in the desert of the occupation.

"Freedom is indivisible, and as long as Palestinians are deprived of their liberty, Israelis too cannot be free."

Conference day

To compliment the MMU showing, a one-day conference ‘Art, Visual Culture and the Israeli Occupation’ will be held on May 10. Speakers include Larry Abramson, Sliman Mansour and Anna Dezeuze.

For more information, contact Simon Faulkner in the Department of History of Art and Design, s.faulkner@mmu.ac.uk

http://www.holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk

www.desert-generation.co.il

The exhibition at the MMU Holden Gallery, All Saints Campus, Grosvenor Square, Manchester runs until May 16.