A Conversation with Malak Mattar, Moderated by Bayan Haddad
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Malak has come to Edinburgh for her debut Scottish exhibition, Screams. Her works will be exhibited at Embassy Gallery from Thursday, May 23rd until Monday, May 27th. Following its display at Embassy Gallery, it will transfer to the In Vitro Gallery at Summerhall from June 7th, until June 28th.
About the Guests:Malak Mattar was born in 1999 in the Gaza Strip and grew up under occupation and the military siege. From a family of talented cultural practitioners, Mattar started making art as a teenager during a period of open conflict (Operation Protective Edge, 2014), and she soon began to sell work online and exhibit internationally. She won a scholarship to study political science at Istanbul Aydin university (2018–22) and another to study a Masters of Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s, London, in 2023.
Soon after arriving in the UK, Mattar’s entire world was turned upside down, causing her work to undergo a dramatic shift in style, subject matter and palette. While artist-in-residence at An Effort in Central London (December 2023–February 2024), she documented the genocide in her homeland through a series of mostly monochrome drawings and paintings. She later combined these scenes into a monumental greyscale painting called No Words. This work is a testimony to the apocalyptic horror and extent of the displacement, ethnic cleansing and atrocities being ravaged upon Mattar’s fellow Palestinians.
“It needs to be completely horrific,” she stated while making the work, “otherwise it will not accurately reflect the genocide.”
“The horse has a symbolism and a place in the current time of war. Its role has changed from carrying fruits and vegetables to being an ambulance. There’s strength and hardness to a horse, which is how I also see Gaza; I don’t see it as a weak place. In my memory, I think of it as a place that loves life. It always gets back on its feet after every war.”
Some of Malak’s works that will feature at her exhibition, Screams.
Mattar wrote and illustrated the bestselling children’s book Sitti’s Bird (2021) based on her own life experiences, which is already in its second print run.
In defiance of strict travel restrictions, Mattar has lectured in universities across the USA (2020–21) and she has had solo exhibitions in Palestine (2015 onwards); Costa Rica (2015); Great Britain (2017, 2018, 2023, 2024); Sweden (2018); USA (2019, 2021); Germany (2020); Lebanon (2021); Portugal (2022) and Italy (2022).
Most recently, Malak had two concurrent exhibitions in London, andher monumental painting No Words was shown for the first time (March 2024). Her artworks have also been collected, published, and exhibited in numerous group shows worldwide.
Malak Mattar
Bayan Haddad is a Palestinian scholar and an instructor of English literature at Birzeit University. She is the George Antonius Birzeit Visiting Fellow for 2024 and she researches fiction from Palestine and Northern Ireland in light of trauma studies.
Bayan Haddad