GAZA by Antoine Janot
Artist: Antoine Janot
Curator: Kaylin Adela Yanta
The P21 Gallery is pleased to present Antoine Janot’s Gaza, a poignant and timely exhibition that spotlights the escalating humanitarian crisis gripping the Gaza Strip. Through stirring visuals and compelling narratives, this exhibition aims to ignite empathy, provoke reflection, and inspire action in the face of unprecedented suffering.
On Friday 26 January in The Hague, the International Court of Justice recognized a plausible risk of genocide being committed by the State of Israel.
After the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine, on October 7th, tensions culminated into an all-out war. After the Hamas attack left 1200 Israelis dead and some 250 taken hostage, the Israeli government answered with a brutal attack on the Gaza Strip that many world organizations, including Amnesty International, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Action Aid, have pointed out as a high risk of genocide. For eight months, Israeli forces have repeatedly carpet-bombed the densely populated strip, destroying civilian centers, among them hospitals, schools, and residential buildings. The death toll in Gaza has passed the grim milestone of 35,000 - more than 70% of those killed had been women and children - 80,000 wounded, while 85 percent of the total population of Gaza — 1.9 million civilians — have been forcibly displaced amid Israel’s military operations. Negotiators are trying to pin down a ceasefire and hostage release deal while the Israeli government began its attack on Rafah.
“ Israel wants the Palestinian people to choose between destruction and displacement, between genocide and ethnic cleansing.” Antoine Janot
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are hungry, some desperately so, and the UN World Food Programm describes a ‘full-blown famine’ happening in Gaza. Infectious diseases have spread fast and there is little access to medical care, with just 12 of Gaza’s 34 hospitals functioning, whether partly or minimally.
“What is happening in Gaza will remain a disgrace to the conscience of humanity. Isn’t it enough to kill 15,000 children, injure more than 80,000 people destroy more than 60 percent of the buildings in Gaza, and for the entire population to face famine? Antoine Janot
The United States is by far the biggest funder of the Israeli military, providing roughly $3bn in aid annually. In April 2024, President Biden just signed an additional $17bn to support Tel Aviv’s operations in Gaza. Some 68 percent of Israel’s weapons imports between 2013 and 2022 came from the US. Tel Aviv also relies on German weapon imports, primarily air defense systems and communications equipment. In total, Germany provides 28 percent of Israel’s military imports. The United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Australia among others also provide military support to Israel.
The exhibition catalyzes meaningful conversations, encouraging visitors to engage critically with the complexities of the conflict. By confronting prevailing narratives and questioning the stance of Western powers, Gaza aims to stimulate thought and promote advocacy for change.
Gaza parents write their children’s names on their bodies so they can be identified in case they die in airstrikes. But most of the time, it is older children who help their younger friends mark their skin with their name and ID number.
07.11.2023
10,022 people killed in Gaza
4,104 Children
A lack of food, water, shelter, and sanitation continues to put children’s lives at risk as they suffer under relentless airstrikes with no safe place to go, said a UNICEF spokesperson. Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting expected to call for a pause in fighting to facilitate aid access, he told journalists in Geneva that “every single child is enduring these 10 weeks of hell and not one of them can escape”.
“As a parent of a critically sick child told me, ‘Our situation is pure misery…I don’t know if we will make it through this,’” he said.
According to the Gaza health authorities, over 25, 000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since the start of Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ deadly terror attacks on 7 October, about 70 percent of them women and children. Over 52,000 Palestinians have been injured and their access to life-saving care is extremely limited. UN health agency WHO said on Tuesday that only eight of the 36 hospitals in the Strip are at least partially functional.
Hospitals are overwhelmed with children and their parents, all bearing “the ghastly wounds of war”, Mr. Elder said. He stressed that while on the Strip he encountered many young amputees. Around 2,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both their legs, he said.
From the UN World Health Organization (WHO), spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris added that WHO staff in Gaza spoke of not even being able to walk in the emergency wards “for fear of stepping on people” lying on the floor “in severe pain” and asking for food and water.
Doctors in Gaza have had to carry out operations under cell phone lights due to power shortage after Israeli blockades shut down the region’s main power station.
Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, said two years before the current conflict erupted that it had installed a network of more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) of tunnels. The Israeli military has nicknamed it the Gaza Metro. The tunnels have specialised sections for launching military attacks, as well as logistics areas, storage facilities, and transportation routes. The scale of some of the tunnels demonstrates significant planning and resources. In mid-December, the Israeli military uncovered what it called the biggest tunnel to date. The passageway, wide enough to drive a car through, emerged in a dune at the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, just 100 meters south of Israel’s Erez military checkpoint, which controls all pedestrian access from Israel into Gaza.
The so-called “Dahiya Doctrine” took shape in the wake of the bruising 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Former Israeli colonel Gabriel Siboni wrote a report that argued the necessary response to militant provocations from Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza were “disproportionate” strikes that aimed only secondarily to hit the enemy’s capacity to launch rockets or other attacks. Rather, the goal should be to inflict lasting damage, no matter the civilian consequences, as a future deterrent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government has promoted a record number of housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank in its first six months. Since January, Israel has advanced 12,855 settler housing units across the West Bank, the highest number the group has recorded since it started tracking such activity in 2012. According to the United Nations, some 700,000 settlers live in 279 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, up from 520,000 in 2012. More than 3 million Palestinians who live in the same area are subjected to Israeli military rule that some rights groups say amounts to apartheid.
Artist Biography:
The exhibition features the works of Antoine Janot, an artist, and activist deeply involved with a French association fighting against precarity. Janot’s artistic practice is anchored in political and social commitment, addressing issues such as feminist revolutions in Iran, the war in Gaza, European migration policies, femicides, and the Covid-19 pandemic. His works, including poems and photographic series, serve as a form of resistance and a call to action, aiming to decry or escape harsh realities.
About the Curator:
Kaylin Adela Yanta, a Master’s student at the University of London studying Museum Cultures and Curating, currently interns at the P21 Gallery. With an academic background in Cultural Anthropology, Diversity Studies, and Art History, Yanta’s passion lies in using art as a powerful medium for social change. Her mission as a curator is to bring to light stories that provoke thought, foster empathy, and inspire action.
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