لا تبكي على غزة … إبكي على نفسك: "إقامة فنية" في غزة / Don’t cry for Gaza… Cry for yourself: An “artistic residency” in Gaza

Abstract

Palestinian painter and educator Basel El Maqosui shares a series of images and texts in response to experiences of displacement, or what he calls “artistic residencies” in Gaza during the ongoing genocide. On recent Instagram posts from August 2025 featuring his paintings, El Maqosui writes, “I do not paint a picture of war—journalists can capture that with their cameras. My paintings are a longing for a kiss and an embrace. They are light that fills our hearts. They are testament to a genocide. They are our concerns during displacement and the anxiety of moving it from one place to another, and the fear of it, as if it were a family member”. The “artist residencies” organized by El Maqosui, can also be seen as an important emergent form of artistic and performance-based work.