This lecture performance is a letter exchange between distanced lovers who write about their daily lives while conflating several love stories and historical events. These include the brief formation and fall of the United Arab Republic and the first Intifada – events that are interpreted through the disruptive act of love. During the lecture performance they exchange archival footage, listen to songs, and watch two films together with the audience: The first film, Jumana Emil Abboud’s The Diver is a video narrative that tells the story of a Diver whose gender, name, and nationality is ambiguous, and who is on an endless search to find ‘heart’. The second film, The Story of Milk and Honey by Basma Alsharif, is a video that weaves together images, letters, and songs that detail the failed writing of a love story in Beirut, Lebanon.
Yazan Khalili is an artist that lives and works in and out of Palestine. Through photography and the written word, he unpacks historically constructed landscapes. Solo and group exhibitions include: Regarding Distance at E.O.A.Projects, London (2014); ‘Margins’ at The Delfina Foundation, London, UK (2008), ‘Future of a Promise Pavilion’, 54th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy (2011); ‘Passport to Palestine’, London (2011); ‘Forum Expanded’, 62nd Berlinale (2012). Khalili’s writings and photographs have been published in Frieze Magazine, Race & Class, Contemporary Art: World Currents and others.
Lara Khaldi is an independent curator based between Ramallah, Palestine, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She recently completed the de Appel curatorial Programme, Amsterdam, and is also pursuing her MA degree at the European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Khaldi was director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, Ramallah (2012–13). She has co-curated a number of exhibitions, which include ‘Gestures in Time (Show 6, Jerusalem, Israel, and the Riwaq Biennial 5, Ramallah, 2013); film and video programmes in 2009 and 2011 as part of the Arab Shorts initiative by Goethe Institute, Cairo
Contact: www.yazankhalili.com lara.khaldi@gmail.com
Format: Lecture Performance, DCP
