The Twelve Windows

The Twelve Windows project, created by Inaash and developed into a museum installation with world-renowned Palestinian installation artist Mona Hatoum, presents a ‘visual’ map of Palestine in a series of 12 exquisite embroidered panels. Each of these one square-meter ‘Windows’ represents, through its motifs, stitches and patterns, a key region of Palestine. Together they comprise a vibrant map of Palestine.

Rigorously planned by Malak Al Husseini Abdulrahim – the culmination of over 40 years of dedicated research and design – the panels were meticulously embroidered by Inaash’s most experienced craftswomen.

Drawing on the timeless designs of upper and lower Galilee, Jaffa, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Hebron, coastal and central Gaza and Beersheba in southern Palestine, the Twelve Windows explore historic Palestine through the longstanding tradition of its embroidery now one of the most tangible facets of Palestinian culture and a symbol of resistance.

In Hatoum’s hands the 12 panels were transformed into a brilliant metaphor for Palestinian life under occupation. The Twelve Windows installation was subsequently exhibited in Hatoum exhibitions in the Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland; the Alexander and Bronin Gallery, New York City, USA; the 2015 Arts of the Islamic World Gala at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA, and in major Hatoum Restrospectives at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and Tate Modern, London, UK.

The Twelve Windows was developed with the aid of a grant from Taawon.