Earliest Memory

100% of proceeds will be going to The Educational Bookshop:

The Educational Bookshop opened its doors in 1984. In February of 2025, Israeli police raided the shop, confiscating legions of books, arresting the owner Mahmoud, and his nephew, Ahmad, under the guise of “disturbing public order.” The shop was forced to shutter its doors. The Educational Bookshop is now back up and running now, b”h, but the need for resources to regain stability, and protect from a surge of hate attacks, remains.

“In Palestine, very few things work out as one plans. Dreams are shattered every day. But as they lurch from one era to another on the perpetual political roller-coaster, Palestinians take with them resilience, generosity, family feeling, concern for others and an endless supply of stories which never make it into print. And that is the real story of the Educational Bookshop.” —Leyla Zuaiter

https://www.972mag.com/educational-bookshop-east-jerusalem-raid-arrests/

Slung over a rusted iron railing, a canvas bag catches your gaze. You stop to peer inside. It’s either carrying gold, or it’s filled with the detritus of someone else’s good time. You revel in the abandoned. Then, also, in the Irresistible Beauty of All Things.

At least, that’s beauty on composer-writer Federico Garcia Lorca’s terms. The mundane eclipses, every time. “The imagination merely discovers things already created, it does not invent. And whenever it does so it is defeated by the beauty of reality.” 

No-Face swallows Aogaeru. A Feng Shui Money Frog sells on amazon.com. Klub2020 grows up in Warsaw—begins painting. The uprising leaves an indelible mark on the infrastructure, rips a seam right through the city. Klub2020 paints over it, or rather, through it, with a sort of pugilistic guile. Gestural murals extend beyond the walls, beckoning planes of bodies to join in and animate cement. A Lorcesqian beauty takes hold. 

And then:

In Kaleidoscope’s gallery, we’re dealt a full Klub2020 deck of playing cards: mating critters, keys, pacified baby. A good, long smoke. A steady stream of breathwork oxygenates the space. New medium and imagery, too: a sweeping ostrich quill pen, and a manifesto of sorts. Prior to this, Klub2020’s fervent pen stuck to its prescribed role, nowhere near scrolls of painted canvas. Worlds are bleeding in Earliest Memory. The imagination hunts, like hunting for treasure: prowling the perimeter, satiated only by reality. Daydreams of the future float through. Memories of the collective follow, in no particular line up, carried in our bones. It’s enough to bow under the weight. Or, waltz like bugs.

Klub2020 (b. 1997) is a Warsaw-born Berlin-based muralist known for his conceptual approach to graffiti. With a background in cultural studies, fine arts, and sociology, his work blends cultural commentary with elements of internet culture. Over the past decade, his practice has expanded from classical street art and graffiti to include animation, site-specific painting, and research-based murals, driven by a passion for ideas and a fascination with abandoned spaces. Inspired by cultural dynamics and literature, Klub2020 continually challenges both his audience and himself, reaching for the weird and the inexplicable.