Bashir Makhoul
Floating Free
8 October 2015–31 January 2016
Al Hoash Gallery
7 Zahra street
Jerusalem
Birzeit University Museum
Birzeit Universty
www.alhoashgallery.org
www.birzeit.edu
Openings:
Jerusalem: 8 October, 7pm, Al Hoash Gallery
Birzeit: 10 October, 7pm, Birzeit University Museum
Curator: Rawan Sharaf
7 October: Jerusalem
Preview and press open day: 3–5pm, Al Hoash Gallery
Artist talk: 5–6pm, Al Hoash Gallery
8 October: Jerusalem
Public space performance: 5–7pm, meeting point: Bab Al-Sahera (Herodion Gate)
Opening and Reception: 7–9pm, Al Hoash Gallery
10 October: Birzeit
Preview and press open day: 3–4pm, Birzeit University Museum
Artist talk: 4–5pm, Birzeit University Museum
Opening and reception: 5–7pm, Birzeit University Museum
Floating Free is the first solo exhibition in Palentine by internationally renowned Palestinian British-based artist Bashir Makhoul. The exhibition will be shown at two venues and will have two consecutive openings: first on 8 October at Al Hoash Gallery in Jerusalem, to be followed on 10 October by a second opening at the Birzeit University Museum. Curated by RawanSharaf, the exhibition was initiated by Palestinian Art Court – al Hoash, working in partnership with Birzeit University Museum.
This exhibition comes over 20 years after Makhoul—originally from Galilee—became a UK resident, and hence marks a return of some sort. It explores aspects of what it means for an artist and a by-choice émigré to enact a form of return. This critical enquiry emerges through the production of a body of work that makes close reference to his sense of identity, belonging and loyalty. The exhibition unfolds against a theoretical backdrop in which “returning” remains a concept troubled with paradoxical connotations and consumed by the gravity of history, dislocation and the continuation of colonization. Concurrently, its title, Floating Free, suggests unavoidable contradictions to that of return, which as a concept assumes certitude in relation to where the return is taking place. Floating, on the contrary, is more about uncertainty, flux, hovering in midair in the middle of nowhere. Essentially it represents unsettlement—a perceptible reiteration of the continuous displacement across borders and nations.
Floating Free presents a series of art projects through which the artist explores new ways of visualizing locations and articulating identities. The exhibition features a new series of oil paintings, tapestries, lithography prints, wooden sculptures, site-specific installations and wallpaper. The exhibition also interrogates concepts of ownership, belonging and colonial practices through a major public space performance that will take place through a march in the streets of Jerusalem and will end with an on-site installation at Karm al Khalili.
All the works displayed are visually linked by imagery of repeated motifs, unfolding as interlaced in a thread that has brilliantly woven a journey where art and politics meet. Floating Free investigates issues of territorial and cultural appropriation and interrogates the limits of the condition of location, identity, humanity and ethics. It debates the nature of art and its role within a globalized, market-dominated world.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the British Council and is funded by the European Union and A.M.Qattan Foundation.
For more information, visit:
www.alhoashgallery.org or www.virtualgallery.birzeit.edu
Sponsors
Palestinian Art Court – al Hoash / Birzeit University Museum / European Union / BritishCouncil / A.M.Qattan Foundation / Bashir Makhoul Contemporary Art Museum-Beijing / Birmingham University / Jerusalem Tourism Cluster
