Al-Mintar: Agricultural Watchtowers in the Mountains of Palestine

Objects-In-Focus

Al-Mintar: Agricultural Watchtowers in the Mountains of Palestine

With the Artist Sliman Mansour, in dialogue with Hala Shrouf

Al-Mintar stands prominently as one of the most important commissioned works in the gardens of the Palestinian Museum. Recently completed by the Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, it was commissioned in line with the Museum’s goal of nurturing our connection with the architectural heritage of Palestine.

This work brings to the Museum’s gardens the idea of ​​reviving the construction of Al-Mintar, or what used to be described as the ‘agricutural watchtowers’ scattered across the Palestinian countryside. It resuscitates the processes and stories surrounding their construction, given the centrality they once held with regards to the Palestinian agricultural life. As with other forms of traditional architecture, Al-Mintar faces the threat of extinction because of both rapid urban expansion, and the growing gap between the generations that used these buildings and those who see them without knowing it. In addition to its aesthetic value, the inclusion of this work in the Museum’s gardens is of great educational significance, and bears a particular emotional value that links the artist to his memories of Al-Mintar embedded in the Palestinian landscape, a landscape that has had an indelible presence in a variety of forms in works produced throughout the artists’ career.

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