Qalandiya International I and II

This article reviews the Qalandiya International project (QI for short), initiated in 2012 by a group of Palestinian cultural organisations based in the West Bank (Ramallah), Jerusalem, Gaza and historical Palestine, with a brief overview of the wider cultural, historical and political context against which the name ‘Qalandiya’, normally associated with a brutal manifestation of a military occupation, is reclaimed for a cultural event. Qalandiya International, a collaborative and collective act of cultural resistance in a difficult environment, reimagines and reinvents what a biennale can be and strengthens and supports Palestinian cultural life and contemporary art practice. Briefly introducing the first QI 2012, ‘Art and Life in Palestine’, more detailed coverage is given of the second QI, ‘Archives Lived and Shared’, in October/November 2014 that went ahead following the very recent background ‘noise’ of the disproportionate military attack on Gaza and a rise in tension across the region

Ancient history · Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Media studies · Palestine · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Middle East Politics and Society · Public Spaces through Art