Palestinian Ambassador Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid visits IMMA ahead of a new exhibition showcasing six artists from Gaza and exploring themes of resilience, collaboration and Palestinian identity.
On Friday 23 October, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) will open Eltiqa: How to Work Together?, bringing more than 60 artworks by six Palestinian artists from Gaza City to Dublin.
The exhibition centres on Eltiqa, an artist collective that has spent more than two decades developing shared artistic practices and supporting younger generations of artists in Gaza. Curated by The Question of Funding, in collaboration with Art Jameel, the exhibition arrives in Dublin from Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai.
The Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, visited IMMA on Thursday 22 October for a preview of the exhibition. We look at the stories behind the works, the collective’s enduring creative community and the significance of bringing these artists together at a time of extraordinary upheaval.
Inside the Eltiqa Collective: Art from Gaza
The title Eltiqa, meaning “encounter” in Arabic, reflects the collective’s approach to art as a shared practice. For more than 20 years, its members have worked together while creating opportunities for younger artists in Gaza.
The exhibition features work by Mohamed Abusal, Abdel Raouf Al-Ajouri, Mohammed Al-Hawajri, Raed Issa, Dina Matar and Sohail Salem. Spanning 2002 to 2025, the collection includes everything from small notebook sketches and drawings made with found materials to large-scale paintings and photographs.
The works offer different perspectives on Palestinian life and experience. Dina Matar’s colourful imagery celebrates Palestinian identity and resistance, while Raed Issa’s work explores more sombre aspects of the reality in Gaza.
Together, the artists’ practices reveal how a creative community has continued to function through years of political, economic and cultural challenges.
Why is this exhibition particularly significant now?
The exhibition arrives amid the devastating destruction and displacement experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. Its significance lies not only in the artworks themselves, but also in the extraordinary circumstances surrounding their preservation and journey to Dublin.
Some works remained in the care of institutions and individuals outside Gaza because returning them was difficult or impossible. Others were carried out by members of the collective who managed to leave, while more recent works were smuggled out as an act of preservation.
The exhibition brings these works together from different places and periods, reuniting a collective whose members have been separated by forced displacement and exile. Some remain in Gaza, facing continuing displacement, while others are now living abroad.
For the curatorial collective The Question of Funding, this gathering represents a network of solidarity against dispersal and erasure.
What does the Palestinian Ambassador hope visitors will take away?
During her visit to IMMA, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid expressed her gratitude to the museum for providing a platform for Palestinian artists from Gaza and their work.
“I hope this exhibition will amplify their voices and convey a powerful message of resilience and hope,” she said.
Her comments highlight the importance of presenting these artists not simply through the circumstances they face, but through their creative work, individual perspectives and sustained commitment to artistic collaboration.
How does the exhibition tell the wider story of Palestine?
Alongside the artworks, visitors will encounter an extensive timeline spanning 1948 to 2026. It brings together major events in Palestinian history with key moments in the lives and careers of Eltiqa’s members and the collective’s gallery in Gaza.
Archival photographs and oral histories add personal accounts to the historical record, connecting the artists’ individual experiences with the wider story of their community.
The result is an exhibition that places contemporary artistic practice within a much longer history, while documenting the relationships, shared spaces and creative networks that have helped sustain Eltiqa over the years.
What else is happening at IMMA?
From 29 October, IMMA will present Is Everything and Everyone all the Time, an outdoor film screening programme curated by The Question of Funding for Living Canvas at IMMA.
The programme brings together three films: Basma Alsharif’s We Began By Measuring Distance (2009), Rosalind Nashashibi’s Electrical Gaza (2015) and Oraib Toukan’s When Things Occur (2016).
Each film explores the challenges of representing Gaza through images, confronting the distance between what audiences see and the lived experiences of siege, death, destruction and separation.
Together, the films consider whether different approaches to filmmaking can communicate these experiences without reinforcing the familiar visual narratives through which Gaza is often presented to the outside world.
Where did the exhibition begin?
Eltiqa: How to Work Together? forms part of a long-term collaboration between Eltiqa and The Question of Funding. An earlier iteration was presented at documenta fifteen in 2022, followed by an expanded exhibition at Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai from February to July 2025.
Its presentation at IMMA continues that journey, bringing the collective’s work to an Irish audience and creating another space in which its artists’ stories can be encountered.
At its heart, the exhibition is about more than the survival of individual artworks. It is about the people, relationships and shared creative practices behind them, and the determination to preserve a cultural record despite the forces attempting to scatter the community that created it.
Eltiqa: How to Work Together? opens at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Friday 23 October 2026. The outdoor screening programme begins on 29 October at Living Canvas at IMMA.
Image: Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA and the Palestinian Ambassador, Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid pictured at a preview of Eltiqa: How to Work Together? at IMMA on Thursday 22 October 2026. Photographer: Mark Stedman
