Palestinian children commemorated in Montreal art exhibit

Montreal-based poet, writer and photographer Ehab Lotayef organized an art installation titled "Cocoons - Between Earth and Heaven" featuring works by a visual and installation artist who prefers to remain anonymous and goes by the title, "The Babylonian." The exhibit is sponsored by Teesri Duniya Theatre and the Silk Road Institute in collaboration with Independent Jewish Voices-Montreal. The exhibit opening also had a musical performance and poetry reading.

"Cocoons" draws attention to the plight of children caught in recurring war and never-ending destruction. The artist, The Babylonian, writes in their artist statement that, "These artworks stand between heaven and earth. Children, or what remains of them, are hanging like amulets in the neck of the sky, swaddled in white, asking, in protest, their first-ever question: ‘For what sin were they killed?’

"It is a question that transcends time and place. It is the umbilical cord that attaches all child victims to our consciences until we find the answer,” writes the artist.

The cocoons of the children are also wrapped in gauze, which draws attention to the fact that even simple medical materials like gauze cannot be acquired in Gaza at the moment, let alone any real medical attention. Some of the cocoon bodies of these children are also in the shape of Palestine. The exhibit also has many symbols of paper rockets that hang beside and behind these cocoons to show the innocence of children that may play with paper planes contrasted with the reality of the war that is happening in their world.