I Once Had a Day

Drawn from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, I Once Had a Day brings together works by seven artists who have devoted their practice to staying close to the lived realities of Palestine. Through forms shaped by exile, resistance and return, these works speak to histories of displacement and loss as well as to enduring acts of care, remembrance and cultural survival.

The exhibition unfolds as a conversation across generations, invoking the land not as a geographic entity, but as a witness. Spanning multiple decades and mediums, these practices emerge from and reflect on the conditions of diaspora, speaking from within occupied time. 

The title borrows a line from Mahmoud Darwish’s ‘This Is Her Image, and This Is the Lover’s Suicide’, a poem that appears within Mona Saudi’s work. In this context, ‘I once had a day’ reads as the voice of one who has withstood a loss, yet carries it forward and returns to it again and again. 

Presented in conjunction with the inaugural Sharjah Human Development Forum: Humanity & Heritage in Palestine, I Once Had a Day is organised by Sharjah Art Foundation, NAMA Women Advancement Establishment and The Big Heart Foundation, in collaboration with University of Sharjah. The exhibition is curated by Reem Sawan, Curatorial Assistant at Sharjah Art Foundation.

Featuring

Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara

Hazem Harb

Kamal Youssef

Khalil Rabah

Mona Hatoum

Mona Saudi

Samia Halaby