Meeting with artists from the TEJA Network 

Palestinian creatives Mohammad Bakri and Abboud Abu Tair, residents of the TEJA Network, visited the Casa Árabe headquarters in Madrid, where they met with its General Director, Miguel Moro Aguilar, and the entity’s Cultural Coordinator, Karim Hauser. 

During their meeting, which was also attended by Manuela Otero, coordinator of the TEJA Network, and Mamen Adeva, project manager at Hablar en Arte-Planta Alta, they had the opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge about the work performed by Casa Árabe as an institution of public diplomacy in the arts, and its commitment to the TEJA Network, thanks to cooperation agreement signed by the two organizations last January. 

Born in northern Palestine in 1999, Mohammad Bakri is a photographer who lives and works in Jerusalem. His practice revolves around documenting people and places through analogue photography, in which he explores themes like memory and the passage of time, while highlighting the geopolitical realities of the place where he grew up and learned his craft. 

He is currently undertaking an artist-in-residency program at the Institute of Postnatural Studies in Madrid and, starting in June, at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Cordoba. 

As for Abboud Abu Tair, he is a photographer and researcher born in 1996 in Jerusalem, where he lives and works. He uses photography as a tool for research and analysis, approaching the medium as both a visual and critical practice. His work focuses primarily on landscapes, examining their structures, transformations and the forces which shape them. Through photography, he engages with the image as a means of inquiry into place, memory, and spatial change. 

Abu Tair is currently taking part in an artist-in-residency program at Hablarenarte – Planta Alta, another member of the TEJA Network. 

The TEJA Network is a Network of Cultural Spaces that Provide Support in Emergency Situations. It promotes transnational cooperation, offering temporary shelter to artists and cultural workers who find themselves subject to complex socio-political situations in their countries of origin. Founded in May 2022, TEJA is a network started up by three independent spaces in Madrid: Nave Oporto, Paisanaje and Planta Alta (hablarenarte). Today, it is made up of 16 public and

private institutions and independent organizations from the cultural sector in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao.