Episode 44: “We will never give up” Gazan Artist Malak Mattar on Art as Resistance
“To exist against all these odds, against all these attempts to erase us. To still exist and have a high spirit, it’s really resistance.”
Gazan visual artist and author Malak Mattar joins us on the podcast. She talks about growing up in Gaza - facing bombing her entire life and dealing with notions of home.
She goes on to talk about the cultural destruction of Gaza - how all the schools, universities, galleries and museums that once inspired her have been now been totally destroyed. How the artists she admired and the teachers who gave her the confidence to be an artist have been killed. And yet, she refuses to give up. And she refuses to stop making art.
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About
Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during a period of open conflict (Operation Protective Edge, 2014), and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She is currently completing her Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London.
Visit her website: https://www.malak-mattar.com/