Not-Empty

The Empty Space in Contemporary Palestinian Art

Abstract

 The article examines the centrality of emptiness in contemporary Palestinian art against the backdrop of what scholarship has characterized as the “horror vacui” of Islamic art. Drawing on interpretive perspectives from art, philosophy, and political thought, the study presents artworks that have not yet received systematic academic attention in order to articulate a new framework that defines emptiness as an active force bearing aesthetic and ethical significance. The discussion proposes a model for deciphering Palestinian installation art. It first demonstrates the central role of emptiness in the operation and design of installations, and then considers how empty space links these works to Western minimalist art, with particular attention to their resonance with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. The phenomenological discourse provides an entry point for understanding emptiness in relation to what is commonly termed the “affective turn” in art history and the humanities. Extending beyond the universalist-Western context of discourses on emptiness, the article further explores its political significance in Palestinian installation works, especially when considered in relation to art historical discourse on Islamic art, and specifically to the notions of “horror vacui” and the “love of the infinite.”.