On the occasion of the current exhibition Walid Raad: Festival of (Un)Gratitude, you are invited to a lecture by historian Žiga Smolič, which approaches the exhibition through the perspective of Yugoslav support for the Palestinian revolution in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In his works, Raad examines the long-term consequences of wars and political upheavals in the Middle East and the ways in which violence becomes inscribed in people, places, and collective memory. He also problematizes the very formation of history—revealing how it is conditioned by relations of power and, rather than simply supplementing existing narratives, reshaping the very way history “comes into being.” In the current exhibition, he also indirectly touches upon the (post-)Yugoslav space.

The lecture will place the exhibition in dialogue with Yugoslavia’s political presence in the Middle East. It focuses on the relationship between Yugoslavia and the Palestinian revolution - a historical encounter that functions as a dual interpretative perspective. On the one hand, the Palestinian revolutionary movement offers an important starting point for understanding the broader context of events in the Middle East during the 1970s and early 1980s. On the other, it reveals a parallel narrative of events and processes addressed in Walid Raad’s work.

These relations also reflect developments in the Middle East within the Yugoslav space itself. The Palestinian question resonated in political debates, public demonstrations, and the everyday life of Yugoslav university cities. In the 1970s, Palestinian students formed the largest national group of foreign students in Yugoslavia and created an active intellectual and political community that directly connected events in the Middle East with the social life of the Yugoslav environment.

Based on archival research and interviews with former Palestinian and Yugoslav political representatives, the lecture will shed light on this often overlooked and at times “semi-secret” history of Yugoslav–Palestinian relations. At the same time, it opens a reflection on parallel histories—different perspectives and interpretations of the same events—which the lecture will weave together between Belgrade, Beirut, and Ramallah.

Dr. Žiga Smolič is a historian specializing in the contemporary history of the Middle East and the foreign policy of Yugoslavia during the Cold War. In 2025 he received his PhD from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana with a dissertation titled Yugoslavia and the Middle East, 1961–1980. His research focuses on the political, diplomatic, and social connections between Yugoslavia and the Middle East, with particular emphasis on the Palestinian revolution and relations with Egypt and Iraq. He is currently employed as a researcher at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.