On hosting Palestinian artists
In light of public feedback, we would like to clarify our stance regarding our activities as a cultural organization and address the questions from our community members.
Our artistic program celebrates the diverse and unifying cultures of the people of the Silk Road and beyond. Apart from live music performances, our program consists of panel discussions, book readings, and workshops because we aim to understand and contextualize stories usually unfamiliar to the broader audiences in Switzerland. Our stages are platforms for artists to tell their unique stories. We often amplify voices that have been marginalized or silenced.
For many decades, Palestinian artists have been expressing their sense of loss, their struggle against injustice, and their desire for collective liberation and self-determination. As an organization that is also promoting the cultural heritage of marginalized communities, we naturally identify with the historical underrepresentation, and misrepresentation of the Palestinian people, and that of Palestinian artists in the cultural sphere.
Members of our community have reached out to us to better understand our artistic curation. In return, the discussions have helped us to appreciate their concerns. As a result, we have decided to accelerate ongoing talks with our venue partners and artists to organize multiple events with Palestinian artists.
In the next months, we will listen to Palestinian voices, learn about their untold stories, and understand the profound and ongoing challenges the Palestinian people have faced for many decades.
Appreciating music to be a powerful and inspiring art form of resilience and healing; we have been creating a sense of belonging for our communities. At our events, we get the chance to showcase many of the diverse stories and rich identities we have within and across our communities. This happens in Switzerland’s most renowned cultural venues; spaces that have been inaccessible to most of us for a variety of reasons.
Within the limited power we have as an organization, we have always been and will continue to use our platform to make a meaningful contribution to cultural representation. Our understanding of solidarity goes beyond borders, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. This has always been one of our core principles and we will stay true to our values.
How does jazzhane contribute to the Palestinian narrative?
We are committed to promoting the depth and diversity of the Palestinian cultural and artistic heritage. In the next months, we will listen to Palestinian voices and learn about their untold stories.
On May 18, 2024, we are hosting the Jordanian-Palestinian band El Morabba3 at the Jazz Club Moods.
Working closely with Palestine Solidarity Switzerland, we are co-producing a charity event «Echoes of Peace» on June 15, 2024, that celebrates Palestinian arts and music with art exhibitions and live music.
Between July 4–6, 2024, at our jazzhane festival, we are hosting live concerts, DJ sets, and workshops including a panel discussion on «The Politics of Curatorship» with Palestinian and Swiss experts at the Rote Fabrik.
Why did you invite Palestinian artists only now?
Understanding the legitimate concern of the underrepresentation of Palestinian artists, we would like to address this topic and shed light on the challenges of curating a seasonal program.
The decisions for our productions, collaborations, and shows are made on artistic merits in collaboration with our co-producers (venues) and musicians. It is very important to note that we invite artists because we believe their music fits into our overall artistic vision.
We have been talking to our venue partners and Palestinian artists for many months now. Booking artists can be highly unpredictable at times. Even though we are in talks with numerous artists at any given time, finding the right dates that fit the artists’ busy schedules, arranging and convincing venues for performances, assessing the financial and economic risks of each show, and agreeing on feasible budgets take time, hard work, and quite frankly lots of luck.
Other than concert venues with regular programs, we are only given selected dates per year to curate our program in co-production with said venues. Here too, it is crucial to emphasize that we do not own or run venues. As such, we do not have the flexibility, time, financial, or personnel resources of large cultural institutions.
How do you ensure artists feel safe?
We transparently inform all our artists about our curatorial policies. They receive a full list of all the artists we work with. In light of recent events, we have specifically informed our Palestinian artists about our program as well as the public feedback we have received in the last months.
We collaborate exclusively with artists and partners who uphold the highest standards of respect and inclusivity, and who do not engage in any form of discriminatory behavior (online and offline) or hate speech. We ask our partners to be aware of their role and notoriety, which brings with it a tremendous responsibility. We do our research as best as we can, given the limits (time, resources, etc.) we have, and discuss each artist together with our co-producers.
