Exhibitions
Gaza through her eyes
From September 23 to October 19, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza hosts the exhibition Gaza Through Their Eyes , a visual journey composed of 27 photographs depicting daily life in the Strip under siege. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the museum, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and the European Commission's Department for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO). The images, captured by photojournalists since October 2023, offer direct and moving testimony to the resilience, vulnerability, and humanity that persists amidst conflict.
For nearly two years, the Gaza Strip—a territory just 365 square kilometers in size—has been plunged into devastation. In this tiny space, home to more than 2.1 million people, routine has been marked by incessant bombing, uprooting, and the destruction of everything that sustained life. Families survive amid fear and scarcity, facing hunger, thirst, illness, and loss, with barely a shred of access to the most basic necessities: food, water, medicine, and shelter.
The devastation in Gaza has apocalyptic overtones: entire neighborhoods have disappeared from the map and entire cities have been reduced to rubble. Israeli military offensives have indiscriminately struck civilian buildings—homes, hospitals, schools, and even United Nations facilities—all protected by international humanitarian law. So too have those who risk their lives to assist the population: humanitarian workers. More than 360 UNRWA members have been killed in the Strip, some while carrying out their work. Others died alongside their families, erasing lives, memories, and entire generations in a single blow.
This exhibition becomes a mirror of their vision, a direct testimony from those who live in the Strip. It is, at the same time, the voice of Gaza that breaks through the destruction and silence, a voice that challenges the visitor and invites them to pause in the face of the reality that is often ignored. More than a collection of images, it is a call not to avert our gaze, to recognize the dignity of those who resist, and to keep their memory alive amidst the devastation.
