The program EVERYWHERE WAS THE SAME places Basma al-Sharif’s 2007 film Everywhere was the same in conversation with more recent films dealing with diaspora as an indefinite condition. Basma al-Sharif has compared the diasporic condition to one of “bilocation,” the alleged psychic or miraculous ability to simultaneously inhabit two locations (places, temporalities, realities, identities).
The works in this program explore how the trauma and political struggle of a people are borne by individuals in diaspora, often over generations. In Pegah Pasalar’s Lost in Her Hair (Monday), the hair to be tightly braided and covered for a child’s first day of school is ripped furiously from a hairbrush as the artist prepares to leave her country years later. In Mounira Al Solh’s Freedom Is a Habit I’m Trying to Learn, we accompany two women reflecting on the habits and behaviors of their strangely pleasant new lives. In Basma al-Sharif’s Everywhere was the same, a hypnotic, semi-fantastical account of an exodus from an unnamed place gives way to a historic speech, before switching mid-sentence to a song taking us back over the vivid folds of an embroidered dress. In Suneil Sanzgiri’s At Home but Not at Home, the virtual, dual condition of diaspora extends also to the return: If the void left by diaspora can be filled by other places, it is also haunted by the unrealized moments of history.
Freedom Is a Habit I’m Trying to Learn (الحرّية، تلك العادة التي أحاول اكتسابها), Mounira Al Solh
The artist spent 24 hours with each of four women—Rogine, Waad, Hanin, and Zeina—in the cities where they now live: Zutphen, Oslo, Washington DC, and Sharjah respectively. All four of them cannot live anymore in their countries of origin, Syria and Lebanon. Together, they share a moment of cooking, rolling on the floors of their new cities, talking about life, nothing and everything, their exile and their continuous aims. This screening presents the chapters featuring Rogine and Waad.
Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Lebanon, lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam) is a visual artist whose practice spans video and installation, painting and drawing, text and publishing, embroidery, and performance. Her work faces personal daily life matters, attempts of survivals, feminist issues, ongoing conflicts, patterns of micro-history, and bears witness to the impact of conflict and displacement. Her work has been shown at Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany (2022); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2020); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2018); and The Art Institute Chicago (2018); Sharjah Biennial (2023); Busan Biennale (2022); Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2020); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2020); Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); Venice Biennale (2015); and 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009), among others. She is the recipient of the ABN AMRO Art Award (2023), the Uriôt Prize from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007), and the Videobrasil jury prize for her video Rawane’s Song (2007).
- Year2019
- Runtime43 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryUnited Arab Emirates, Netherlands
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorMounira Al Solh
The program EVERYWHERE WAS THE SAME places Basma al-Sharif’s 2007 film Everywhere was the same in conversation with more recent films dealing with diaspora as an indefinite condition. Basma al-Sharif has compared the diasporic condition to one of “bilocation,” the alleged psychic or miraculous ability to simultaneously inhabit two locations (places, temporalities, realities, identities).
The works in this program explore how the trauma and political struggle of a people are borne by individuals in diaspora, often over generations. In Pegah Pasalar’s Lost in Her Hair (Monday), the hair to be tightly braided and covered for a child’s first day of school is ripped furiously from a hairbrush as the artist prepares to leave her country years later. In Mounira Al Solh’s Freedom Is a Habit I’m Trying to Learn, we accompany two women reflecting on the habits and behaviors of their strangely pleasant new lives. In Basma al-Sharif’s Everywhere was the same, a hypnotic, semi-fantastical account of an exodus from an unnamed place gives way to a historic speech, before switching mid-sentence to a song taking us back over the vivid folds of an embroidered dress. In Suneil Sanzgiri’s At Home but Not at Home, the virtual, dual condition of diaspora extends also to the return: If the void left by diaspora can be filled by other places, it is also haunted by the unrealized moments of history.
Freedom Is a Habit I’m Trying to Learn (الحرّية، تلك العادة التي أحاول اكتسابها), Mounira Al Solh
The artist spent 24 hours with each of four women—Rogine, Waad, Hanin, and Zeina—in the cities where they now live: Zutphen, Oslo, Washington DC, and Sharjah respectively. All four of them cannot live anymore in their countries of origin, Syria and Lebanon. Together, they share a moment of cooking, rolling on the floors of their new cities, talking about life, nothing and everything, their exile and their continuous aims. This screening presents the chapters featuring Rogine and Waad.
Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Lebanon, lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam) is a visual artist whose practice spans video and installation, painting and drawing, text and publishing, embroidery, and performance. Her work faces personal daily life matters, attempts of survivals, feminist issues, ongoing conflicts, patterns of micro-history, and bears witness to the impact of conflict and displacement. Her work has been shown at Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany (2022); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2020); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2018); and The Art Institute Chicago (2018); Sharjah Biennial (2023); Busan Biennale (2022); Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2020); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2020); Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); Venice Biennale (2015); and 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009), among others. She is the recipient of the ABN AMRO Art Award (2023), the Uriôt Prize from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007), and the Videobrasil jury prize for her video Rawane’s Song (2007).
- Year2019
- Runtime43 minutes
- LanguageArabic
- CountryUnited Arab Emirates, Netherlands
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- DirectorMounira Al Solh