The Japan Times - Top Madrid museum opens Gaza photo exhibition

The temporary show at Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Gaza Through Their Eyes, shows residents of Gaza receiving humanitarian aid, children attending improvised schools amid ruins, and families enduring daily life in the midst of widespread destruction.

The museum organised the free exhibition in collaboration with UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and it will remain on display in the main hall until October 19.

Spain has been one of the most vocal critics in Europe of the offensive in Gaza. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for Israel to be barred from international sporting events, and has approved an arms embargo on the country, in response to the conflict.

"These photos document the bombings and devastation in the Gaza Strip, the forced displacement of the population, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure," said Raquel Martí, head of the Spanish branch of UNRWA.

Guillermo Solana, the museum's artistic director, added that the organisers hoped the images would serve "as a wake-up call for those who still refuse to see and turn away from what is happening."

To protect the safety of the participating photojournalists, the 27 photographs on display are unsigned. Israel has barred foreign reporters from Gaza, forcing international media to rely solely on local journalists and photographers.

Irene Khan, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has accused Israel of targeting journalists in Gaza in an effort to cover up what she calls "genocide."

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders reports that over 210 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched military operations in the coastal enclave in response to the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas.

"These are not distant images. They are human gazes that compel us to recognise the dignity of a people who are suffering," Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun said at the exhibition's opening.

The Thyssen-Bornemisza is part of Madrid’s so-called "Golden Triangle of Art", alongside the Prado Museum, Spain’s national gallery, and the Reina Sofia Museum, home to Pablo Picasso’s anti-war masterpiece Guernica.

All three museums are within walking distance along the capital’s Paseo del Prado.

In 2022, the Thyssen-Bornemisza hosted an exhibition of around 60 Ukrainian artworks that had been evacuated from Kyiv to protect them following Russia's invasion.

T.Sasaki--JT