The Finestres bookstore has opened a new space in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona dedicated exclusively to the culture, thought, and situation of the Palestinian people. The inauguration coincided with the day of commemoration of the Nakba, which recalls the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands between 1947 and 1949.
The opening establishes a bookstore in Barcelona with unprecedented characteristics outside of Palestinian territory. The project also comes after the act of vandalism last June that damaged about thirty books on Palestine in the Finestres location on Diputació street.
The new space brings together 4,000 titles in four main languages
The initial collection includes nearly 4,000 titles of narrative, children's literature, theater, poetry, essays, arts, and gastronomy. Around half of the books are in Catalan and Spanish, while the rest are mainly divided between Arabic and English, in addition to other languages such as French or Italian.
Olivia Watson, head of Finestres Palestina, explained that the bookstore will have "everything you can read to understand the reality in Palestine, the context, and the situation" and that the goal is for the space to also function as "a space for cultural exchange."
"Everything you can read to understand the reality in Palestine, the context, and the situation" - Olivia Watson, head of Finestres Palestina
The interior of the establishment was designed by Palestinian architect Malek Murad Mateu. The project takes the colors of the Palestinian flag as a reference.
Finestres will open a 100-square-meter cultural room next to the bookstore
Next to the sales space, Finestres will set up an adjacent 100-square-meter area for a stable cultural program. The plan is for this area to complement the bookstore's activity with events and meetings related to Palestinian creation and thought.
Estefania Rico, director of the Fundacions Ferrer and the Fundació Finestres, stated that the initiative aims to "give the millennia-old culture of the Palestinian people, which is unjustifiably marginalized, the place it deserves."
"It is a bookstore like no other in the world, it only exists in Palestine and in Barcelona" - Estefania Rico, director of the Fundacions Ferrer and the Fundació Finestres
Rico also linked the definitive push of the project to last year's vandalistic attack on Diputació street. The director stated that this episode was "quite decisive" in moving forward a proposal that, in her opinion, had to be "something brave in the city of Barcelona".
The adjoining cultural space will have 100 square meters, a surface area reserved for maintaining a stable program alongside the new Gràcia bookstore.