In April 2024, after enduring six months of war, Palestinian artist Maha Al-Daya was forced to flee her home in Gaza with her family. Throughout her exodus, Al-Daya continued to make art using whatever surrounded her: charcoal from burnt wood, canvas from her tent, flyers dropped by the Israeli planes. It was the only way she knew how to process her loss and maintain her identity.
Al-Daya is now an artist-in-residence at Reid Hall, jointly hosted by the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and Sciences Po as part of the PAUSE program. In this episode, she tells her story and discusses her latest works, created entirely through embroidery—a medium she calls "the language of Palestinian women." She also shares the challenges of building a new life in France while feeling the constant pull of the home she left behind, her approach to different artistic mediums and techniques, and her ambition to create art that focuses less on war, and more on hope.
Website - globalcenters.columbia.edu/paris
Newsletter - globalcenters.columbia.edu/content/paris-newsletters
Instagram - instagram.com/cgcparis
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/cgcparis
YouTube - youtube.com/@CGCParis
Host: Marie Doezema
Production: Marie Doezema, Tessa Overvoorde, and Anthony Valette
Translation and Interpretation: Yasmine Haj
Editing: Theo Albaric
Music: Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne performed by Magdalena Baczewska and Sasha He
With thanks to the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre in Paris
The Columbia Global Paris Center is part of a network of 11 global centers of Columbia University in the City of New York, one of the world's leading academic institutions. The centers serve as knowledge hubs that aim to educate and inspire through research, dialogue, and action. They advance understanding, facilitate partnerships, and build the bridges necessary to tackle our changing world.
Columbia Global brings together the Columbia Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination.
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