Jessica Carolina González

Station Museum of Contemporary Art in support of CASP (Collective Artists In Solidarity with Palestine) and PYM (Palestinian Youth Movement) presents In The Sun a symposium Oct 8th - 17th 2021.

Symposium organizers, Lina Assi, Brenda Edith Franco, Tere Garcia, Jessica Carolina González, Lina Habazi, Marcos Hernández Chávez, Nour Khalil, Angel Lartigue, Mohammed Nabulsi, & Moe Penders

In the Sun is a symposium & group exhibition formed by Houston artist and activist coalition, CASP (Collective Artists in Solidarity with Palestine) and PYM (Palestinian Youth Movement); exploring themes of interconnected struggle, familial & ancestral lineages, reimagining other ways of living outside of oppression, light and darkness, space and resistance. We explore the mythology of the sun as a gravitational consciousness that connects the movements of our ancestors. The sun mythology – speaks to the visceral struggles shaped by the legacies of colonialism and imperialism. The sun has also been a witness to the experiences of exile, alienation and suffering. Despite it representing these dire conditions of our experiences as displaced peoples, it also represents a force for renewal and for life. Luz en lo oscuro, light in the dark, finds its ways underneath the ground, it tunnels to be liberated, to the far reaches of the sky. The artworks in this exhibition serve as keys and legends in a celestial map, deciphering our collective stories, bridging the dynamics of the places we migrate from, through our resilience and labor we guide ourselves.

Our bodies respond to the sun

Our skin changes in the sun

Our sweat beads in the sun

Our family is lost in the sun

We have suffered in the sun

We are nourished by the sun as our loved ones once were.

Our skin responds to the sun, unapologetically,

as a declaration of our existence.

We work in the sun, collectively, internally

We fight in the sun

We die in the sun

We dream in the sun

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland. Our belonging to Palestine and our aspirations for justice and liberation motivate us to assume an active role as a young generation in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people. Irrespective of our different political, cultural and social backgrounds, we strive to revive a tradition of pluralistic commitment toward our cause to ensure a better future, characterized by freedom and justice on a social and political level, for ourselves and subsequent generations.

Collective Artists in Solidarity with Palestine (CASP) is a local Houston collective created as a response to the lack of Palestinian solidarity within cultural art centers. CASP is a collaboration of BIPOC, queer and trans artists with the objective to create space in solidarity between interconnected struggles across marginalized communities and movements.

Exhibiting Artists:

Lina Abojaradeh
Hadeel Assali
Qais Assali
Anh Hà Bùi
Leticia Contreras
Brenda Edith Franco
Tere Garcia
Jessica Carolina González
Lina Habazi
Marcos Hernández Chávez
Kill Joy
Angel Lartigue
Matt Manalo
Catherine Martinez
Hisam Nabulsi
Moe Penders
Danya Zituni

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Featured Panelists:

Mohammed Nabulsi (moderator)
Lina Assi
Ryan Crane
Angel Lartigue
Bria Lauren
Mariposa Tejada

Supporters:

PACC (Palestinian American Cultural Center)
PYM (Palestinian Youth Movement)
In The Sun is hosted by the Station Museum of Contemporary Art and made possible by the support of Ann and James Harithas.

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Special thanks to:

Nour Khalil, Sophie Asakura, Joshua Poole, and Alex Tu

Exhibition poem by Jessica Carolina González
Photo documentation by Tere Garcia​

Press:

“In The Sun” Uplifts Stories of Oppressed Peoples Amidst Institutional Erasure, Shift Press, Uyiosa Elegon

Station Museum Takes An Artistic Stand on Palestinian Solidarity, HoustoniaMag, Sofia Gonzalez

Palestine Resistance Through Art, Lamar Life, Yezen Saadah