This December 2024, my work “Borderless Weave” found a home at the Lucia Mendoza Gallery in Madrid as part of Relational Routes’s collective exhibition, creatively directed curation by Martin Jimenez Javier, features my piece. The gallery has long been known for creating dialogues between different artistic practices, and it’s dedicated to driving contemporary art towards sustainability and broader, purposeful art expressions.
The exhibition Relational Routes explores connections, both physical and metaphysical, between people, places, and materials. Each artist presented a distinct perspective on these themes, contributing to a collective narrative about art’s journey in the modern world. My contribution, “Borderless Weave,” aims to challenge the fixed perceptions of what wool as a material, and by extension, the cultures they come from, can represent.
The piece, suspended in a delicate equilibrium, plays with fragility and strength. Using wool—a material deeply intertwined with my practice and the rich historical narrative of Palestine—“Borderless Weave” is a testament to a material’s ability to transcend boundaries. For me, wool is not just a textile but a medium of storytelling, one that connects us to the land and the hands that have shaped it for generations. This work embodies the concept of weaving not just materials but histories and memories into a form that feels both ephemeral and eternal. The work comes after two years of experimentation—a free-flowing, borderless weave that transcends the constraints imposed on weaving practices in Palestine due to the many hindrances from Israeli occupation. A weaving vision towards carrying on the values and memories of our societies, symbolizing the hope for a future of growth and renewal without barriers.
In the gallery space, it appeared almost weightless, like a floating organism, blending into its surroundings yet standing out with its earthy textures and natural dyes. The installation invites the viewer to move around it, to engage with its layers and uncover the intricacies hidden within its folds. I wanted the audience to experience a certain intimacy with the work—an exploration of the tensions between softness and strength, tradition and innovation.
What made this experience particularly meaningful was the talk about my wool experience and explaining about the stages it took to reach here. Along with Teja, the international cultural solidarity network supports artists and cultural professionals in emergency situations through a residency program for artists and cultural workers from various conflict territories, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Palestine and Iraq. Through Teja, I were able to continue and thrive on my artistic, creative project in Spain and was able to establish international collaborations. Moreover, it was necessary to witness how “Borderless Weave” interacted with other artworks in the show, creating new conversations with them. Each piece, in its way, added to a larger narrative of movement, community, and cultural exchange. This exhibition wasn’t just about static art forms but about creating a space for relationality—
I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in such a thought-provoking collective and to see my work as part of a broader exploration of how art can redefine the borders of perception, materials, and human connection.
The exhibition runs until February 2025 in Gallery Lucia Mendoza, Spain.
