Taqi Spateen’s ‘War on the wall’ screening added to Brink! program
As part of a tour with Bethlehem Cultural Festival, funded by British Council & Creative Scotland, Palestinian artist and activist Taqi Spateen is touring the UK. Taqi is in Belfast with Artists Against Genocide, to produce a piece of street art on the wall of the Sunflower Bar, across the road from the Brink! site.
Beautiful chance encounters & serendipity have been at the core of our Brink! journey, and Taqi & the Artists Against Genocide folks just happened across us, as we were preparing for our weekend solstice festival of food, music & film screenings.
We got talking with Taqi, and he said he had a film & asked if would we be interested in screening it. He sent us the link, and as we started to watch it the opening statement on the wall by the legendary Labour politician Tony Benn had us hooked. It’s a beautiful short film, called ‘War on the wall’, filmed on the separation wall in Bethlehem & so we had to add it to the film program, as part of our ‘What will you do?’ theme, which is looking at cultural activism.
Thank you very much Taqi for offering to let us screen your film & we hope with all our hearts that the cruel acts to your country & to the people of your country come to an end soon.
Graffiti art is a major cultural force in Palestine. In August 2005, UK street artist Banksy and his team painted seven large murals on a section of the 440-miles-long West Bank Wall, also referred to as the Separation Wall. Since then, the wall has gone on to become a hotspot for the graffiti scene, a major tourist attraction and a powerful work of art in its own right.
Joining Taqi in Belfast is Glasgow-based Ciaran Glöbel, with fellow artist Conzo Throb, was behind the fake Banksy - a rat wearing a union jack bowler and banging a drum emblazoned with the words “God Save the King” - which appeared in the city last June. The stunt was intended to highlight the hypocrisy surrounding street art and graffiti, where some artworks are praised and valued and others are dismissed and removed. Glöbel was the subject of a 2018 BBC Arts short film, Hands On, about his work as an artist, graphic designer and signwriter.
Taqi Spateen has created many murals on the wall including The Boy with the Goldfish Bowl, showing a child with what is left after the destruction of his childhood home, a series of portraits of George Floyd, and his collaboration with the brand The North Face, Walls Are Meant For Climbing. Now creating and exhibiting internationally, Spateen draws inspiration from the Palestinian countryside, particularly the olive tree, one of the most famous of all Palestinian symbols. His more recent paintings also include depictions of mass urbanisation and colonial settlements on his precious homeland.
Bethlehem Cultural Festival was set up in 2020 to put the artists, arts and culture of Palestine and Bethlehem centre stage.
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