Emerging as a creative response in support of Palestinian photojournalists, Unmute Gaza has brought together an array of artists highlighting the unimaginable suffering currently being experienced by the people of Gaza. The project features interpretations of photographs captured on the ground in the exclave which can be easily downloaded and pasted up around the world; so far interventions have been seen across 83 cities in 30 different countries. These images both make visible the suffering which is all too absent from much of the media’s reporting on the issue and also highlight that according to the Committee To Protect Journalists more than 105 journalists have been killed over the past seven months; this accounts for more than three-quarters of all media workers killed worldwide during that period and the deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
Approximately 125 hostages remain unaccounted for since Hamas’ attack on 7th October but Unmute Gaza stresses that the civilian population “cannot be the victim of collective punishment, so it is necessary to stop the cycle of violence against innocent people.” While the images capture individual stories of trauma in Gaza, many are also emblematic of broader issues. Axel Void and Maverick Mura have recreated Sameh Nidal-Rahmi’s aerial photo of the a-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City which was destroyed by shelling on 10th October 2023; it is estimated that to date over 62% of all homes in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed. Jofre Oliveras has painted a still from a video taken by Mariam Abu Dagga of children in Rafah scrambling to get a free meal in February 2024; Volker Türk, UN high commissioner for human rights, has said that there is evidence Israel is withholding the delivery of aid which has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. One of Escif’s watercolours shows Samia Al Atrash, herself a journalist, embracing and saying her goodbyes to her two-year old niece Masa who, along with her sister Lina, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in October 2023; women and children account for the majority of the over 35,000 Palestinian deaths.
In addition to their wheat pasting, this latter image, based on a photo by Mahmoud Bassam, was unfurled as a banner from the third floor of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Shepard Fairey’s print, based on Belal Khaled’s heartbreaking image of a child crying for help, covered the façade of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid following guerrilla action in partnership with Greenpeace; the museum is significant as home to Picasso’s emblematic anti-war epic Guernica. Talking about his involvement, Obey said “I feel morally obliged to amplify the message of Belal’s photography. I believe in solutions to disagreements that avoid violence.”
All artworks are available as free assets to be printed and pasted by the public from https://unmutegaza.com
Photo credits: Nima Taheri, Fruit of the Lump, Luna Park and Greenpeace/MarioGomez
