This exhibition revives one of the most intense cultural and social phenomena from modern Palestinian history: Mawsim Al-Nabi Rubin (Festival of the Prophet Rubin). For centuries, this festival, which took place each summer in south Jaffa, was not merely a religious gathering at a historic shrine, rather it would turn into a temporary tent city, the site of a lively scene which broke the monotony of daily life and offered a unique social outlet. 

The spirit of this Mawsim is embodied in the famous Jaffan saying “Ya bitrubini.. Ya betalekni..” (either you rubin me or you divorce me). This sentence carries within its folds an immense passion for life, a hinted invitation for intimacy, and a space to practice freedom and joy within a conservatively leaning social context. Here “rubining” is an act of reclaiming the body and its right to happiness, and that is the essence which this exhibition…