Picasso in Palestine

Picasso in Palestine was the first exhibition of an original painting by Picasso in Ramallah, Palestine. The research project encompassed the entire process of the loan and relocation of the painting ‘Buste de Femme’ from the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven to the International Art Academy Palestine (IAAP), Ramallah. The complex negotiations to realise the project challenged legal procedures for transporting and displaying international art. It set a precedent for similar projects, establishing new possibilities for the Palestinian state and its art community. The project questioned what is at stake in the relations between art, politics and geography. It did this by exploring a set of theoretical concerns, enacting them through the practical processes of transportation and exhibition and demonstrating the control systems that regulate accessibility to knowledge. The reception in Ramallah and the reactions the work solicited were a crucial aspect of the project and were documented in ‘Picasso’s Journey’ a film by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi. The film’s European premiere was at ‘Documenta 13’on 9 June 2012 where Esche spoke about the project with Documenta’s Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev.

In addition, Issue 22 of ‘A Prior’ magazine was dedicated to the project and the issues it raised. Esche’s text, ‘An Ambitious Claim’, sets out the origins and objectives of the project from the perspective of the Van Abbemuseum. It describes an institution dedicated to re-examining its modernist archive in the light of 21st century globalisation and how this project not only shifts possibilities within Palestine but alters the significance of the painting when returned to the Van Abbemuseum. The article argues that as a painting made in 1943 under one occupation, its visit to another occupation re-politicises its genesis, while its relative anonymity in a provincial Dutch collection emphasises the differentials in cultural access between the Netherlands and Palestine.

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