The Watermelon and Palestine's Art Scene, lecture by curator, writer and researcher Rana Anani
You are invited to a lecture The Watermelon and Palestine's Art Scene by curator, writer, and researcher Rana Anani, which will take place on Monday, 19 October 2026, at 18:00 at Pritličje (Mestni trg 2) in Ljubljana.
Where did the watermelon come from as Palestine's loudest symbol these days? This lecture follows that question into the art scene in Palestine under occupation, and how it functioned and adapted over the years across different political ruptures. It will focus on the art scene under genocide in Gaza, and ongoing ethnic cleansing across the rest of Palestine: the resilience, solidarity, and survival.
Rana Anani, currently a critic-in-residence at Švicarija, is a curator, writer and researcher concerned with art, archives and practices of solidarity. She has collaborated with institutions and initiatives, including the Palestinian Museum, Qalandiya International, the Palestinian Pavilion at Cannes and the Sharjah Biennale 13 off-site project Shifting Grounds in Ramallah, the Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana and Bergen Assembly. She is a Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and the director of Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah.
Anani is the author of artist Sliman Mansour’s memoir On the Ghoul’s Path (2026) and editor of Nabil Anani’s memoir Exit to the Light (2019). She is an editor of Gaza: A War of Frenzied Revenge, A Collection of Policy Papers (IPS, 2025). Her contributions include Collective Study in Times of Emergency (L’Internationale, 2024) and Race, Nation, Class: Rereading a Dialogue for Our Times (HKW/Argument Verlag, 2018). She also co-authored Throne Village Architecture (Riwaq, 2003) and curated The Land and I (IPS, 2024).
In collaboration with the MGLC International Centre of Graphic Arts and Pritličje.