Rodrigo Bardin

Palestinian communities maintain deep connections to the land through their traditions and shared cultural heritage. These connections endure through families, architecture and the landscapes that have shaped Palestinian life for centuries. In Roots, @shillypreston imagines an enormous tree rising above a Palestinian landscape. Elaborate stone buildings emerge from its branches, a doorway opens within its trunk, and a Palestinian flag flies above the rooftops. Behind the scene, the sky shifts through vibrant bands of digital distortion, contrasting with the traditional architecture and landscape below. Presented in Lisbon as part of Still Here (2026), the buildings nestled among the tree branches evoke the deep connections between Palestinian communities and the land, as well as the cultural heritage carried across generations.

Traditional Palestinian embroidery, known as tatreez, has long served as a record of cultural identity and belonging. Patterns, colours and stitching techniques often reflected the villages and regions where they originated, preserving connections to place across generations. In T.a.t.r.e.e.z., @_pixellare fills the silhouette of Palestine with shifting embroidery patterns. Rendered in pixels, the traditional designs move across the map, connecting a centuries-old textile practice with contemporary digital art. The work was presented in Lisbon as part of Still Here (2026) and explores how Palestinian cultural heritage carries memories of place, even as the communities and landscapes associated with those traditions have changed.

For The Grove, @0xTjo used the ages of Palestinians killed in Gaza to generate digital olive groves. Each variation of the artwork is shaped by this information, creating a landscape of trees influenced by the lives of those who died. Olive trees have grown across Palestine for centuries, tended by families across generations. For TJO, the trees in The Grove represent those that should have had the chance to grow alongside the people whose lives were cut short. An Indigenous artist from the Mashteuiatsh community in Canada, TJO often explores relationships between people, memory and land. The Grove was presented in the Still Here exhibition in Lisbon in June 2026.