PLO Propaganda Posters and Films Get London Exhibition

Muaid al-Rawi, Revolution Until Victory (1978). Photo: courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.
Hosni Radwan, <em>Heroic Revolutionaries of Fatah</em> (1979). Photo: courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Hosni Radwan, Heroic Revolutionaries of Fatah (1979).
ourtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Posters, films, and other materials produced by artists in the Palestine Liberation Organization Information Department’s Beirut offices during the 1970s are the subject of a new exhibition opening in London, reports the Guardian.

“The World Is With Us: Global Film and Poster Art from the Palestinian Revolution, 1968-1980” has been curated by the Palestine Film Foundation. The little-recognized artistic output of the pan-Arab movement has long been overshadowed by the fighting and violence that accompanied it. In addition to training fighters and waging battles, the PLO operated schools and cultural programs, funding filmmakers and distributing propaganda posters.

Muaid al-Rawi, <em>Revolution Until Victory</em> (1978). Photo: courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Muaid al-Rawi, Revolution Until Victory (1978).
Courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Among the artists featured in the show are Lebanon’s Saloua Raouda Choucair, who had a retrospective at Tate Modern last year, Jordanian sculptor Mona Saudi, and Palestinian artists Ismail Shammout and Mustafa al-Hallaj. Volunteers from all over the Arab world joined the PLO cause.

“The Palestinian Revolution had an allegorical power,” Nick Denes, one of the exhibition’s curators, told the Guardian. “It represented liberation for all Arabs.”

Mona Saudi, <em>Day of the Palestinian Struggle</em> (1976). Photo: courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Mona Saudi, Day of the Palestinian Struggle (1976)
Courtesy of the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

“The World Is With Us: Global Film and Poster Art from the Palestinian Revolution, 1968-1980” is on view May 16–18 at London’s Barbican Cinema, before moving to Rich Mix, also in London, May 19–June 15.


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