Moayed Abu Ammouna
Barzakh of Gaza (2024–25)
Three photographic prints on Alu-Dibond
Moayed Abu Ammouna is an artist born and based in Gaza. Working across filmmaking, photography, and experimental visual narrative, he explores questions of land and Indigeneity, the ruptures inflicted by colonialism and displacement, and the liminal condition of existence under genocide. Reflecting on—and challenging—the historical and lived conditions that define his generation and those born in the aftermath of the Nakba, Abu Ammouna considers how collective memory functions both as a site of mourning and a framework for imagining and shaping possible futures.
At a moment in history of unprecedented destruction and global unrest, Moayed Abu Ammouna’s photographs take on even greater significance. Gaza was a precedent—its images of devastation foreshadowing the imminent violence inflicted well beyond its borders.
The artworks presented at ChertLüdde books (10.03 - 02.04.2026) were produced by Spore Initiative Berlin as part of the exhibition Unsettled Earth, commissioned by Spore Initiative and curated by Joud Al-Tamimi and Lama El Khatib (25. April 2025 - 28. February 2026).
Below are excerpts of Moayed Abu Ammouna's writings
كثيفة بالدم الصادق وشظايا الإنفجار من موت جائع يحاصرهم ويختبرهم، فحفظوا الخارطة جيداً وأعادوا تعريف الوجود.
Mired in the barzakh of Gaza with nothing but maps of ascension to paradise. Short distances separate their bodies from fatal storms; distances dense with earnest blood and shrapnel from a ravenous death, besieging and testing them. They committed the map to memory and redefined existence.
وبعد،
هي صور لما كانوا يفعلون قبل الموت، لمن تاهوا نازحين، لأشكال الحزن والقهر الممتد، لنضالات الغزيين اليومية في وجه الحروب العميقة، والركض الطويل بقلوبهم المثقلة داخل المدينة اليتيمة المحاطة بالقيم النبيلة والإنفجار، محاولين النجاة من مقصلة الموت ونهر الدم بفشل أو بأعجوبة مؤقتة، لموت مؤجل بفارق التوقيت.
And then, images of what they were doing ahead of their departure, of loss in exodus, of collective sorrow and protracted rage; images of the daily struggles of Gazans in the face of immeasurable wars. Images of long runs with heavy hearts in an orphaned and dignified city surrounded by explosions, of attempts to survive the guillotine of death and rivers of blood, in failure or by a fleeting miracle; a death deferred by timing.
هي صور أخرى لمن حملوا أولادهم بلا رؤوس، عن من فتشوا بالأنقاض عن الأجساد، لمن صرخوا منسيين وهم تحت الأنقاض بلا أجساد واختفوا بالخبر وفي ثنايا الرقم.
They are images of those who carried their children without heads; of those who searched through the rubble for bodies; of those who cried out, forgotten, from under the debris, bodyless, then vanished into the news cycle, in its folds of numbers.
للوجوه المشرقة الناعمة، التي تجابه فصول الإبادة عبر العيون المحدقة التي اتسعت لكل هؤلاء الجنود، ومفاصل الجسد التي اقتحمتها الدبابات، واشعلتها ضرورة الحق والثأر وشمس الحرية.
Of radiant, delicate faces confronting annihilation, through unblinking eyes widened to take in all those soldiers; of bodies invaded by tanks and ignited by the necessity of justice, tha’r, and the sun of freedom.
لقد اخترعوا أزمنتهم المختلفة. ينشدون أحلامهم الصغيرة الممكنة بأن يحيوا عاديين بدون صفات، مُحررين من نزيف الذاكرة، من تداخل الزمن، دون قلق الغد واصطحاب القهر؛ بأن تهدأ هموم عمرهم ويحضروا الليل المطمئن.
They invented times of their own, chanting their dreams of an ordinary life without attributes, liberated from the hemorrhage of memory and recollections, the overlapping of time, without the anxiety of tomorrow or the burden of oppression. Dreams of quietude and tranquil nights.
صور للإجابة عن الأفعال في وقت الحرب والنزوح المتوارث والمرتجف؛ المرتجف جداً.
Images responding to action in a time of war and an inherited, trembling dispossession.
لمن يطوفون عالقين في برزخ غزة وفراغات الوقت، الحالمين بنهاية مفتوحة متجذرة، منتصرة لاتنزف دمعاً، وتُنهي مواعيد الإغتيال.
To those who flood and roam, mired in the barzakh of Gaza and in the emptiness of time, dreaming of an open ending, rooted and victorious, without tears; bringing an end to the calendar of assassination.