From Palestine to the Biennale: A Field Report
I leave for Venice, Italy this week to join a crew filming an exhibit on Gaza opening on May 9th at the Venice Biennale.
It takes close to a day to travel from my home in Portland Oregon to Venice, Italy.
For those transporting the work on display at this exhibit, the journeys take weeks or months. The carriers are part of a global network reaching across the Mediterranean Sea and through various ports, borders, roadblocks and delivery stations to arrive in Venice.
This cargo began in the Palestinian villages and refugee camps where women embroiderers created 100 pieces in a year-long project funded through the Palestine Museum US and their Tapestry History Project. From Ramallah to Lebanon’s refugee camps and as far as New Zealand, Palestinian women have been embroidering panels to create a collective cross-stitched testimonial in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Each piece consists of 55,000 stitches, totaling 5.5 million stitches, and depicts scenes from the genocide in Gaza.
🏛️ The Exhibit
The exhibit is part of the official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and on display from May 9 through 22nd November 2026.
The creators of GAZA–NO WORDS have a vision of this work as an enduring record of the genocide. There is deep heartache, grief and mourning etched into the pieces on display. They also express collective outrage over the scale of the ongoing violence and a call to hold the perpetrators accountable.
GAZA - NO WORDS is visually bold and aesthetically moving as well. The 19 by 31-inch tapestries reflect the intricate beauty of tatreez (embroidery) as well as its history as symbol of Palestinian resistance. A centuries-old Palestinian tradition, tatreez is used to adorn wedding dresses and for other celebratory occasions. But much like the keffiyeh scarves, tatreez designs have been taken up as expressions of Palestinian identity and pride.
🎞️ The Documentary
I am honored to be working with Faisal Saleh and others on his team at the Palestine Museum US on a documentary that we hope to produce over the summer of 2026.
As a first step, editor Jeff Harshman and I worked with Faisal to create a trailer on the exhibit.
The film (likely 30-40 minutes in length) will tell the story behind the exhibit. That story includes the daunting journey of the carefully wrapped packages as they are passed person to person, via taxis, boats, cars and planes. It is a network born of creative strategies of resistance and movement across inhospitable borders. In following that journey, the film provides glimpses of the embroiderers as well, many of whom live under conditions of displacement and occupation.
The documentary will include interviews with the team behind the project and on-site visitors who share their reactions and reflections. How do we speak about the genocide when words seem to fail us–when we have “no words”? What does it call on us to do at this juncture in history and as the violence continues?
Please follow this project as the production team and I report from the field.
If you haven’t seen the team’s previous films on Gaza, check out these documentaries from 2025: The Palestine Exception and SUMUD: A Doctor’s Report on Genocide and Survival in Gaza.
SUMUD is now available for streaming worldwide on Kinema.
The stream also includes the full panel discussion recorded after our premiere. The conversation is candid, searching, and deeply personal. We talk about what it means to document suffering ethically, about the burden carried by medical workers who return home, and about why storytelling still matters.
The stream will be available to watch anywhere in the world - with a suggested rental of $4.99 and a pay-what-you-can option.
I hope you’ll watch these films. I hope you’ll share them. And I hope you’ll continue to stand with those whose steadfast perseverance keeps truth alive.