Berlin/ Birzeit: Berlin-based Palestinian artist, Steve Sabella has put his artwork, No Man’s Land, up for auction at Sotheby’s, the oldest and largest auction house in the world. The auction will be held on 24 March 2020 at 14:30 GMT. Sabella will donate all sale revenues to benefit the Palestinian Museum’s Education Programme.
The Education Programme is a key component of the Palestinian Museum’s programmatic strategy. Annually, the programme develops and hosts interactive educational activities benefitting more than 3,000 students from 60 schools, in addition to activities geared towards university students and intergenerational groups. The programme also produces educational resources that promote children’s critical thinking, improve their visual and cognitive perception and nourish their imagination and creativity.
No Man’s Land (2015) is an impressive six-metre-wide photographic triptych, which was featured in the Palestinian Museum’s historic international group exhibition, Intimate Terrains: Representations of a Disappearing Landscape.
Addressing the importance of art in the Palestinian context, Sabella said, ‘In the fragmented land of Palestine, art has become the ambassador for the nation’s eternal struggle for liberation. Art can be a great tool of resistance, as it can transform the impossible into the next creative innovation.’
For her part, Director General of the Palestinian Museum, Adila Laïdi-Hanieh, PhD, said, ‘We cherish Steve’s initiative and value his belief in the Museum’s mission of developing non-conventional education to create a better tomorrow. We are grateful to Sotheby’s for generously agreeing to include No Man’s Land in their prestigious 20th Century Art / Middle East sale which features sought-after artists from the modern era to the contemporary period. “
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Important dates
Auction date: 24 March, 14:30 GMT
Please register for the auction by 23 March. More details here
About Steve Sabella
Steve Sabella (1975, Jerusalem, Palestine) uses photography as his primary mode of expression. He is known for his imaginative use of the medium and painterly photographic collages, his most recent being The Great March of Return (2019). It includes over one thousand photographs captured by five Palestinian journalists from Gaza, contrasted with photos of outer space in a monumental ‘present-day fresco’.
His award-winning memoir, The Parachute Paradox (Kerber Verlag, 2016) follows his upbringing in occupied Jerusalem, his search for liberation from within, and his developing means of resistance to the colonised imagination. Through his art and writing, Sabella works beyond narratives of exile. He articulates human connection that transcends culture and nationality, and advocates for global citizenship.
Sabella holds an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster, London and an MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. In 2008, Sabella received the Ellen Auerbach Award from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, leading to the publication of his monograph Steve Sabella - Photography 1997–2014 (Hatje Cantz, 2014). His artwork has been exhibited and is held in collections internationally.
About the Palestinian Museum
The Palestinian Museum is an independent institution dedicated to supporting an open and dynamic Palestinian culture nationally and internationally. The Museum presents and engages with new perspectives on Palestinian history, society and culture. It also offers spaces for creative ventures, educational programmes and innovative research. The Museum is a flagship project of Taawon and one of the most exciting new cultural projects in Palestine. The Palestinian Museum won the 2019 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and is LEED-certified Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council.
For more information, contact:
Safaa Halahla
Fundraising Officer
The Palestinian Museum
shalahla@palmuseum.org
www.stevesabella.com
