Doha, Qatar: “I designed The Maze to show the world the frustration Palestinians are facing in their everyday life”. That’s how Naima Al Majdobah describes one of her art pieces displayed at Qatar Foundation’s Palestine Art Exhibition at Education City.
The game-type art piece created by the alumna of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university was showcased in the exhibition at Multaqa (Education City Student Center) where more than 100 art pieces by students from across QF schools and universities were displayed to show solidarity with Palestine.
Al Majdobah says she was inspired to design The Maze by a project she worked on during her Master’s studies, where students were asked to create an art piece that relates to the word ‘joint’.
Thinking about her homeland Palestine, where her heart belongs, Al Majdobah pictured the apartheid wall enforced by the Israeli Occupation which “separates” instead of “joins” the Palestinians from their lands, and this contradiction sparked the concept behind The Maze.
“The Maze was designed to depict and shed light on the day-to-day life of Palestinians and the struggles they go through in order to access the lands they own that are on the other side of the wall,” said Al Majdobah.
The Maze is a game in which a board is divided into two sections designed according to the original map of the West Bank, showing the Palestinian section, the Israeli section, and in the middle, the thin, tall concrete wall.
The players’ goal is to try to pass a metal ball through multiple gates at the wall that are open for the ball to pass through, but only one gate will allow the ball to go through to the other side. When trying to pass the ball through the gates, the player will face challenges that will take them back to where they started.
“The game embodies the hardship that Palestinians go through because of the wall,” Al Majdobah says. “While the Occupation make it seem like it’s only a ‘separation’ wall that anyone can seamlessly go through, in reality, it depends on the mood of the guards and the instructions given by their superiors on the day regardless of whether it’s a Palestinian student going to school or a family man going to work or visit relatives on the other side.
“In the game, you will feel very frustrated as you play it, so imagine living this every day. And on the back is the hidden message that it’s not a game. It’s the harsh reality.”
Another of Al Majdobah’s art pieces is called Earth’s Lady. The idea came about when she wanted to create a special Palestinian souvenir to spread its culture around the world. Combining two pivotal cultural facets of Palestine, scents, and embroidery, she created soap bars made up of genuine Palestinian aromas, which when used fully leaves a plastic coaster that is carved with the same patterns of Palestinian embroidery.
Speaking of the role of Palestinian artists around the world in supporting their cause and their goal to free their homeland, Al Majdobah said: “We are in a time where not only lands are getting stolen, but everything is getting stolen – dance, food, clothing. And although these aspects might seem small when looking from a wider context of the Palestinian struggle, it makes so much of a difference.
“When you create a project that travels the world, you get to educate people about your culture through art. I went to Austria a couple of months ago, and a lot of people I met there started contacting me after the genocide started in Gaza, to ask if I’m OK and if my family are OK, because now they relate that specific project to that culture and to the designer who is connected to it.”
Al Majdobah also stressed the importance of using a universal language tocomplement art and design so it can reach the global community who might not be aware of what is happening in Palestine.
“When an artist is sharing a piece of art they have worked on and care to write a description in English, they are targeting a whole new set of audience who might have ignored what they don’t understand,” she says.
“When a student or artist explains the idea of their design using a universal language, we see even professors repost it, whether they are Italians or Americans.
And in the context of what’s going on currently, these professors get so much hate from their followers. Yet they still do it because they know the truth and have students in the same design community who are related to the struggle.”
