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“Fragments of Survival”: Gazan Artist Shares Art of Resistance with Prishtina

From flour bags to gallery walls, the young Gazan artist Hussein al-Jerjawi brings his testimony of war and resistance to audiences in Prishtina through his work exhibited at BIRN’s Reporting House.

On the evening of June 26, BIRN’s ‘Reporting House’, in Kosovo’s capital Prishtina connected with Gaza through a Zoom video call. Hussein al-Jerjawi, an 18-year-old artist, and his brother Asem, appeared on screen speaking from what looked like the remnants of a bombed room, with a broken ceiling and a grey curtain partially shielding the backdrop.
The young artist al-Jerjawi has endured displacement five times since the war broke out between Hamas and Israel on October 7th, 2023. Yet, somehow, he found a way to express his feelings and the experience of war, displacement, destruction, and the suffering of the people in Gaza through his drawings and paintings.
Last evening, he shared his transformative journey with an audience in Prishtina: from a young high school student whose education was interrupted because of war to the young artist who continued his dream of telling stories through art by turning to an unconventional medium.
“We were displaced without any belongings. We didn’t have tools or paints. All I had were the flour bags in front of me. I took one and started working on it. I searched for materials and went from person to person to get paints, then I would use their paint and started working on the project,” said al-Jerjawi.

Participants listen to the talk with artist from Gasa Hussein al-Jerjawi and his brother Asem at BIRN's Reporting House exhibition in Prishtina, June 26, 2025. Photo: BIRN/Jetmir Hoxha

Participants listen to the talk with artist from Gasa Hussein al-Jerjawi and his brother Asem at BIRN’s Reporting House exhibition in Prishtina, June 26, 2025. Photo: BIRN/Jetmir Hoxha

He would be studying art at university now, but because of the war he couldn’t even finish high school.
“I can’t get a scholarship or go abroad, as I must have a high school diploma,” he shared with the audience at the Reporting House.
Al-Jerjawi joined the talk live from northern Gaza as part of the exhibition “Fragments of Survival,” which features his work painted on flour bags handed out by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to Palestine Refugees in the Near East—the canvases born out of necessity during a crisis which he used to express the suffering of the people in Gaza. The exhibition, curated by Gazmend Ejupi, opened in Prishtina at the Reporting House Gallery, to bear witness to art, but also to the persistence of life and expression under siege.
His earlier work focused on still life and portraiture. But as the war intensified and public life collapsed, so did access to materials, schools, and studios. In their absence, Hussein adapted both the tools he used and his way of practicing art.
“Before the war, I mainly painted still life paintings, portraits and faces. But during the war I started expressing the suffering, the people… the people living in Gaza, the war, the destruction, the killing of children, and the bombing of hospitals. I wanted to carry their voices to the world, through exhibitions or museums outside Gaza,” he explained.
The images he creates depict hunger, displacement, bombed hospitals, and grieving families.
“Before the war I had peace of mind for painting. There were tools available, canvases available, and centers that supported artists where we could sit and work. But now, I cannot find any center, any tools, any canvases, or any peace of mind for working at all,” he confessed.
For al-Jerjawi his paintings are more than a way to survive, they are a form of resistance. The paintings are his memory and a testimony of the suffering of the people in Gaza.
“I want to carry the voices of the people, I want to carry their suffering, through paintings and exhibitions, and through museums outside Gaza.”
His dream is to one day be able to “stand in person besides my paintings at the exhibitions curated for me, meet the visitors of the exhibitions and be able to talk to them.”

The exhibition "Fragments of Survival",  at BIRN's Reporting House in Kosovo's capital, Prishtina. Photo: BIRN/Leonora Aliu

The exhibition “Fragments of Survival”, at BIRN’s Reporting House in Kosovo’s capital, Prishtina. Photo: BIRN/Leonora Aliu

“The exhibition in Kosovo at Reporting House managed to carry my voice and respond to my call to showcase these works,” he said.
“The war will end. It will end just as it began. It will end and we will rebuild it, rebuild the country and the cultural and artistic centers. The tool for paintings will return. There will be special spaces for artists to paint,” the 18-years old artist from Gaza stated.
His work is a representation of the political narrative and collective trauma of Gaza and it offers a more intimate reflection on identity, the body, and survival.
Reporting House brought his work closer to a Kosovan audience, framing it as an examination of the impact of war and conflict, and of societies shaped by their resistance and their fight for freedom.
Hussein al-Jerjawi’s exhibition “Fragments of Survival”opened at the Reporting House Gallery this June, on the first anniversary of the Reporting House Museum project. Reporting House is produced by BIRN in Kosovo in collaboration with Prishtina Biennale, showcasing the 1998-99 Kosovo war through journalists’ reports and artists’ work. In its first year of operation it had over 9,700 visitors.
The Reporting House Gallery is a new annex to the Reporting House Museum dedicated to presenting conceptual modern art produced since 2000.

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27 June 2025 - 17:24

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