Opening of the exhibition Ahlam Shibli: Phantom Home
14 NOV 2013
Free entrance.
The photographic work of Ahlam Shibli (Palestine, 1970) addresses the loss of home and the fight against that loss, but also the restrictions and limitations that the idea of home imposes on individuals and groups marked by repressive identity politics. Subjects include the occupied Palestinian areas; Palestinian soldiers fighting in the Israeli army; monuments that commemorate jointly members of the French Resistance against the Nazis and French fighters in the colonial wars against peoples claiming their own independence; the bodies of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals from Near Eastern, African and Asian societies; and communities of children growing up in orphanages in Poland.
Death, Shibli’s most recent photographic series, shows the efforts of Palestinian society to preserve the presence of those who lost their lives fighting against the occupation. The series focuses on the representation of the absent through photographs, posters, graves and graffiti, displayed as a form of resistance against the occupying regime. The exhibition includes nine photographic series produced by Ahlam Shibli during the last decade. Most images are accompanied by texts and captions written by the artist that assign each photograph to a specific time and place and reflect an investigative process that often implies long empirical and conversational contact with the subjects in question. Both text and photograph form a unit that protects them against use in any context other than the anti-colonial politics that motivates the author. ‘Phantom Home’ is organized and produced by the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves in collaboration with the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and Jeu de Paume, Paris.
The photographic work of Ahlam Shibli (Palestine, 1970) addresses the loss of home and the fight against that loss, but also the restrictions and limitations that the idea of home imposes on individuals and groups marked by repressive identity politics. Subjects include the occupied Palestinian areas; Palestinian soldiers fighting in the Israeli army; monuments that commemorate jointly members of the French Resistance against the Nazis and French fighters in the colonial wars against peoples claiming their own independence; the bodies of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals from Near Eastern, African and Asian societies; and communities of children growing up in orphanages in Poland.
Death, Shibli’s most recent photographic series, shows the efforts of Palestinian society to preserve the presence of those who lost their lives fighting against the occupation. The series focuses on the representation of the absent through photographs, posters, graves and graffiti, displayed as a form of resistance against the occupying regime. The exhibition includes nine photographic series produced by Ahlam Shibli during the last decade. Most images are accompanied by texts and captions written by the artist that assign each photograph to a specific time and place and reflect an investigative process that often implies long empirical and conversational contact with the subjects in question. Both text and photograph form a unit that protects them against use in any context other than the anti-colonial politics that motivates the author. ‘Phantom Home’ is organized and produced by the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves in collaboration with the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and Jeu de Paume, Paris.
