Minister of Cultural Affairs, Anne Enger Lahnstein

Opening of the exhibition ”Palestinian artists today”

Drammens Museum, 2 July 1999

Dear friends,

This is the first time I have had an opportunity to visit the Drammen Museum of Art and Cultural History and its department of fine arts. I am aware, however, of the many interesting exhibitions it has hosted. I was thus very pleased to be invited to open this exhibition of Palestinian art.

This museum has been involved in an ongoing process of broadening its horizons, and this is not the first time it has focused on art from areas outside Europe and the United States. It has hosted artists from Japan, Cuba and Chile, and has presented exhibitions from Africa and Pakistan in cooperation with National Touring Exhibitions, Norway.

There is growing interest in Norway in non-European art, and Drammen Museum is at the forefront of this trend. I regard this as a very positive development, especially since the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Affairs is making particular efforts in precisely this direction. This is an important work, because Europeans have, for too long, been preoccupied with their own culture and have shown too little interest in meeting and appreciating the cultures of other parts of the world. This state of affairs is changing, in Norway as well as in the rest of Europe.

Drammen Museum, in collaboration with the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs, has sought the guidance, advice and assistance of immigrants to Norway who are familiar with Middle Eastern and Palestinian art. Russian historian Alla Bogdanova and her husband, Dr. Sanaa Mustafa, co-founders of the Oriental Art Museum in Norway, have helped to make this exhibition possible by introducing the curator of Drammen Museum to their Palestinian friends and colleagues.

When we see this exhibition, we realize that Norwegians and Palestinians may have more in common than we originally thought. In his contribution to the exhibition catalogue, artist and writer Aissa Deebi notes that all Palestinian artists are concerned with their homeland, the suffering of the palestinian people, its identity and its destiny, and that this concern is reflected in their art. This is also the case with Norwegian artists, especially at times during our history when we have needed to define ourselves as a people and as an independent nation.

Artists have played an important role during the years of israeli military occupation by creating symbols for the new, independent nation. For this reason it is easy for us to identify with Palestinian artists today and to appreciate the vital work they are doing in creating the icons of a nation. At the same time, the many different modes of expression in this exhibition indicate that there is a wide range of artistic individuality among Palestinian artists, just as there is among Norwegian artists. This proves that artists are artists, whether they live and work in the Middle East or in Scandinavia.

I am honoured to have had the opportunity to meet two of the most outstanding artists of Palestine, Mr. Isam Bader from the West Bank, who is also a consultant for the art activities of the Ministry at Ramallah, and Mr. Sliman Mansour from East Jerusalem, who is the director of the Palestinian art centre Al Wasiti. I know that you have both been an important source of help and inspiration for the curator at the museum, Mr. Øystein Loge.

It is a great pleasure to be able to congratulate you on this splendid exhibition. Now I would like to give the microphone to Mr. Bader, who will join me in declaring this exhibition officially open. Mr. Bader.