On Wednesday, June 12, the Palestinian Museum launched the Arabic edition of Returning: Palestinian Family Memories in Clay Reliefs, Photographs and Text by Palestinian artist Vera Tamari. The book was first published in English under the same title and represents the culmination of an artistic project she developed between 1989 and 1996.
This Arabic edition was produced with the support of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), and with contributions from the Dalloul Art Foundation and the Palestinian Museum. The launch took place during a symposium hosted by the museum in Birzeit, featuring the artist in conversation with Dr. Salim Tamari, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies.
Dr. Tamari opened the discussion by reflecting on Vera Tamari’s academic and artistic journey, highlighting her prominent role in the Palestinian cultural and artistic landscape, and her distinctive work in ceramics, sculpture, and conceptual art, alongside her participation in local and international exhibitions.
During the conversation, Vera Tamari discussed the concept of the book, which brings together her artistic project Family Portraits, a series of fifteen clay relief panels inspired by photographs taken by her father in the 1920s up until the Nakba. These photographs documented family moments, as well as social and political occasions in Jerusalem, Yaffa, and other areas, forming a rare visual archive of a Palestinian middle-class family before displacement.
Tamari explained that the project grew out of her pressing need to document urban life and people’s experiences during that era, particularly as many Palestinian families lost their photographs and documents in the aftermath of the Nakba. Through this project, she offered a visual and personal narrative that captures the rhythms of her family’s daily life, inviting readers to recover memory and to engage in a reflective state of mind that evokes the idea of return.
Vera Tamari is a Palestinian visual artist and curator, born in Jerusalem. She received her BA in Fine Arts from Beirut in 1966, later specializing in ceramics in Florence in 1974, and earned her Master of Philosophy in Islamic Art and Architecture from the University of Oxford in 1984. Throughout her career, Tamari has actively contributed to advancing arts and culture within Palestinian society. She taught art and Islamic architecture at Birzeit University for more than twenty years and founded and directed the Birzeit University Museum between 2005 and 2010.
The Palestinian Museum is an independent, non-governmental cultural institution dedicated to fostering an open and dynamic Palestinian culture on both local and international levels. It contributes to the production and presentation of new narratives about Palestinian history, culture, and society. The museum also provides a space for creative projects, educational programs, and innovative research, making it one of Palestine’s most significant contemporary cultural initiatives.