Wednesday 7 September 2022
Masterclass with Basma al-Sharif
About this masterclass
Al-Sharif will share a project titled ‘a Philistine’, an installation work centered around the reading of a fictional text within the exhibition space, accompanied by a series of stand-alone images.
The text, broken into three genres: History, Fantasy, and Erotica, follows the story of a central character nicknamed “Loza” on a train journey from Beirut, through Palestine, that ends in Upper Egypt. Told chronologically, the narrative moves backwards in time through history. Beginning in present-day Lebanon, the narrative travels through 1935 Palestine, and ends in New Kingdom Egypt.
A Philistine is the original work from which a new piece is being developed, titled ‘Beotienne’. In the early stages of development, al-Sharif will engage participants in how she aims to translate text into voice, landscape into atmospheric sound, and politics into music. Proposing a series of exercises that engage participants and their own practices in how they specifically, spontaneously understand the act of translation.
About Basma al-Sharif
Basma al-Sharif is an artist of Palestinian heritage raised between France, the US, and the Gaza Strip who developed her practice nomadically. She works between cinema and installation to explore the legacy of colonialism through satirical, immersive, and lyrical works. Major exhibitions include: the Ruttenberg Contemporary Photography Seriesat the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Modern Mondays at MOMA, CCA Glasgow, the Whitney Biennial, les Rencontres d’Arles, les Module at the Palais de Tokyo, Here and Elsewhere at the New Museum, Al Riwaq Biennial Palestine, The Berlin Documentary Forum, the Sharjah Biennial, Videobrasil and Manifesta 8, and has participated in international film festivals in Locarno, Rotterdam, Berlin, Milan, London, Toronto, New York, Montreal, and Yamagata. Basma is represented by Galerie Imane Farés in Paris, and distributed by Video Data Bank and Arsenal. She is currently based in Berlin.