Larissa Sansour
In The Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain
Until March 3, 2016
Private preview: January 18, 6–9pm
Lawrie Shabibi
Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue
Al Quoz
Dubai
T +9714 (0) 346 9906
info [at] lawrieshabibi.com
Lawrie Shabibi is delighted to announce In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain by Larissa Sansour. The exhibition will present screenings of her most recent film—of the same name—together with an installation and three large-scale photographic works. Through the film, Sansour examines the politics of archeology and how myths of the past can become historic interventions with the power to create nationhood.
The film is a combination of sci-fi and archival imagery set against a mesmerizing musical score and ambiguous time and place. At times it projects itself into the past and at others propels itself into the future with a view to creating a manufactured history. A female protagonist who describes herself as a “narrative terrorist” is questioned by her interlocutor, whose identity remains unknown and is open to speculation—is she a journalist, a psychiatrist, or an interrogator? The protagonist tells of being part of a resistance group seemingly on the brink of the apocalypse where “archeology is the frontline.” The weapons of this unknown opposition group are elaborate porcelain decorated with the Kefiyyeh motif typically worn in Palestine and symbols of their decades of resistance. In the film’s most dramatic scene, these porcelain pieces, which belong to an entirely fictional civilization, are delivered to their location and buried into the ground. These are “the facts on the ground for future archeologists to excavate,” their aim to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands: once unearthed, this tableware will prove the existence of this people.
The exhibition also includes three large-scale photographs that feature archival images taken from the Library of Congress’s archives and UNRWA to make a pan-historical collection of the various occupying forces in Palestine through the ages.
Finally, Larissa Sansour presents an installation depicting an assembly line that appears to have been abandoned halfway through the creation of the fictional porcelain plates. Deliberately crude, the work highlights how our past can be systematically controlled and fabricated.
Artist biography
Larissa Sansour (b. 1973, Jerusalem) studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, New York, and London, where she currently lives. She has exhibited in a number of solo shows including Nation Estate, Montoro 12, Rome, 2015; Nation Estate, Al Ma-mal, Jerusalem, 2015; Nation Estate, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK, 2014; Nation Estate, Museum of Contemporary Art, Turku, Finland, 2013; Science Faction, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai, UAE, 2013; Living the Highlife, Centre of Photography, Copenhagen, 2012; and Falafel Road at Depo, Istanbul, 2011. She has participated in the Liverpool Biennale, 2010; Istanbul Biennale, 2009; Third Guangzhou Triennial in China, 2008 and LOOP, Seoul, 2010. She has exhibited in a variety of international museums and institutions, most notably MoMA, New York, 2015; CentQuatre, Paris (2014); the Centre for Photography, Copenhagen, 2012; Cornerhouse, Manchester, 2012; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark, 2011; Hiroshima MOCA, Japan, 2011; Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark, 2010; Iniva, London, 2010, Al Ma’mal, Jerusalem, 2007; and Tate Modern, London, 2007. Her works are part of notable collections, including the Wolverhampton Gallery, UK; the Imperial War Museum, UK; the Carlsberg Foundation, Denmark; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark; N.B.K., Germany; Nadour, Germany, Salsali Private Museum, UAE and the Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE.
About Lawrie Shabibi
Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery housed in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. The gallery supports the long-term development of the careers of young international contemporary artists with a focus on those from the Middle East and North Africa. The gallery also organizes art historical exhibitions working with an older generation of artists from the region. Liaising with curators, institutions, museums, and collectors, the gallery has successfully introduced international artists to the region whilst at the same time presented Middle Eastern artists to the international contemporary arts community.
Media contact
For more information, images, or media enquiries, contact Nadine Fattouh:
nadine [at] lawrieshabibi.com / T +971 4 346 9906
