I Am Still Alive

Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, I have been keen to stay in touch with friends as much as possible, reassuring them through my daily writings and drawings that I publish online, documenting the war with my eyes and my brush in all its details. My drawings have been a message to my friends, telling them that I am still alive.

‏Through my daily writings, I have documented stories of destruction, loss, death, weakness, displacement, hunger, pain, patience, resilience, and heartbreak. I have expressed the narrative through my works, away from the propaganda-driven storytelling. This is the story of a war that produces an immense capacity for harm, triumphing over distance and geography, even surpassing the speed of sound to bring death to more people in less time. 

‏The occupation has destroyed everything beautiful in my small city, leaving things stuck in a distorted memory under the rubble. Like many others, I have been displaced from Gaza City to its far south for the tenth time, moving between the narrow spaces of the city in an attempt to survive the massacre, searching for the lost safety and escaping annihilation. I have lost everything I owned—my office, my house, my studio, all my works, tools, books, and possessions.

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Maisara Baroud is a visual artist who was born in Gaza in 1976. He has worked as a university lecturer at the College of Fine Arts at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. Baroud earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Al-Najah National University in Nablus (1998) and a Master of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts in Zamalek, Cairo (2011).

Baroud has participated in numerous local and international group exhibitions in Palestine, France, the United States, Japan, Italy, Russia, Canada, Qatar, Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Kuwait, India, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain.

He has also held seven solo exhibitions: "I Am Still Alive" (2024) at Zawyeh Gallery in Ramallah, followed by exhibitions in America and Finland, "Rubble" (2021) at the French Cultural Institute in Gaza, "Existence" (2021), an online exhibition on Art Scoops in Lebanon, "Boats of Salt" (2019) in Bethlehem, "White Phosphorus for the Birth of Elia" (2009) at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, followed by exhibitions in Algeria and Gaza, "A Flash of Glitter" (2009) in Algeria, and "Rita and the Rifle" (2004) in Gaza.

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"After losing his home and studio in Gaza City in October, Maisara Baroud began drawing his diaries under the devastating Israeli genocidal war. He hasn’t ceased drawing since losing his “personal little world” to destruction, along with all his paintings, tools, books, and precious memories. Through his paintings, he documents displacement, brutal bombardment, the fear of loss, and the anxiety of protecting loved ones. Baroud says, “I draw to tell my friends that I am still alive.”