Unmute Gaza
An artist led global print and paste campaign exposing media silence in solidarity with Gaza’s photojournalists and citizens.
Unmute gaza
Unmute Gaza was a creative movement launched in support of photojournalists on the ground in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict (2023–present). It emerged as a direct response to government and media silence with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listing 170 journalist deaths to Feb 2025—the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began collecting data in 1992.
The project partnered with five active Gaza-based photojournalists—Belal Khaled, Mahmoud Bassam, Sameh Nidal-Rahmi, Saher Alghorra, and Majdi Fathi. With their consent, over 40 leading artists recreated their harrowing photography as paintings and sketches, uploading them as free assets for the public to download, print, and paste in solidarity.
From London Town to the Arctic Circle and even the depths of the ocean, the project reached 177 cities across 43 countries. It appeared everywhere from the Guggenheim New York to remote landscapes, earning coverage in over 100 news outlets including The Art Newspaper, Sky News, and The Wall Street Journal. The project’s final intervention was a powerful takeover at Madrid’s Reina Sofia Museum, home to Picasso’s Guernica—one of history’s most iconic anti-war paintings. This action was realized in collaboration with artist Shepard Fairey, whose work further amplified the campaign’s message on a global scale.
The movement’s impact was formally recognized with the prestigious IVSA Award, a human rights accolade honoring the transformative power of art in public spaces.
