Ramallah – (A.M. Qattan Foundation):
On Tuesday, 10 December 2019, the A.M. Qattan Foundation organized the book launch of Khaled Hourani’s book “Searching for Jamal al-Mahamil” at its headquarters in al-Tireh neighbourhood in Ramallah.
The book was discussed by artist Sliman Mansour, painter of Jamal al-Mahamil “the Camel of Burdens”; Nabil Amro, writer, politician and journalist, Khaled Hourani, author, and artist Mohammed Bakri who read excerpts of the book.
In his book, Hourani narrates the story of the search he and others undertook to reveal the fate of Sliman Mansour’s 46-year-old painting Jamal al-Mahamil. The painting disappeared without a trace to become Mansour’s most iconic work.
The painting depicts an elderly porter struggling to carry Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock at its centre on his back, which later became a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness and resistance. The first copy of the painting which was made in 1974, became part of Muammar Qaddafi’s collection after being gifted to him by Libya’s Ambassador in the US. It was assumed that the painting was destroyed during the American military intervention in Libya.
Khaled Hourani was born in Hebron in 1965, he was the Artistic Director of the International Academy of Art – Palestine (2007 - 2010), which he headed later (2010 - 2013). He was also the Director General of the Fine Arts Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture (2004 - 2006). Hourani has participated in many local and international exhibitions, and has organized and curated several others. He participated in a number of cultural and artistic workshops and seminars locally and internationally, the last of which was the Abu Dhabi Art Summit in 2019.