In partnership with MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) has organised Between Circles and Constellations, a thought-provoking solo exhibition by Moroccan-French artist Bouchra Khalili. The show presents the artist’s in-depth investigation into the overlooked histories of solidarity among transnational and stateless communities, displaying main works from her career spanning the past 15 years. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (SAF Director and President), with support from curatorial team members Amal Al Ali and Meera Madhu, the exhibition will end on 1 December 2024.
One of the central questions Khalili strives to answer in her work is “Who is a witness to history?”. Her practice revolves around collaborating with marginalised communities, whom she calls “civic poets.” Together, they intertwine personal and collective stories, creating new ways to witness and document history. Using montage, the artist articulates and speculates, encouraging audiences to actively engage with her narratives and join the collective of civic poets embedded in her work.
The title of the exhibition refers to the potential communities Khalili portrays in her works. “Circles” alludes to al halqa, an ancient Moroccan storytelling tradition where the performer (helayqi) is at the centre of an audience circle. This communal practice, which enables people to exchange stories and political ideas across generations, is a recurring theme in Khalili’s projects. They include The Circle (2023), a video installation based on Khalili’s decade-long exploration of the Movement of Arab Workers and its theatre groups (Al Assifa and Al Halaka) from 1970s France, and The Public Storyteller (2024), the artist’s two-channel installation created in Marrakesh. “Constellations” represents the networks of transnational solidarity revealed in the exhibition, connecting different migrant and anti-colonial struggles across regions.
The exhibition itself can be called a constellation where artworks are linked through shared themes of belonging and political agency, alongside key historical figures and those from postcolonial archives that appear and reappear in Khalili’s work.
About the artist
Bouchra Khalili (b. 1975, Casablanca, Morocco) obtained an MA from the Ecole Nationale d’Arts de Paris-Cergy (France) and a Post-Graduate Degree in Film and Media Studies from Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). She currently serves as a Professor of Contemporary Art at the Angewandte University (Vienna) and is a co-founder of La Cinémathèque de Tanger, an artist-run non-profit organisation.
Spanning film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, textile, and publishing, Khalili’s work examines the legacies of imperialism and colonialism, as exemplified by current instances of undocumented migration and the memory politics surrounding anti-colonial and international solidarity movements. Drawing from post-independence avant-gardes and Moroccan vernacular traditions, her storytelling approach weaves together historical and micro-narratives. Through a combination of documentary and conceptual art practices, Khalili explores themes of self-representation, autonomous agency, and the resistance of communities marginalised by the nation-state.
Khalili has displayed her creations in a plethora of solo and group exhibitions as well as art events, such as the 60th Venice Biennale (2024); Thinking Historically in the Present, 15th Sharjah Biennial (Sharjah, 2023); The Magic Lantern (solo) (Callie’s, Berlin, Germany, 2022); Stories of Resistance (Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA, 2021); Foreign Office (solo) (Kunstforenings, Oslo, Norway, 2020); the 12th Bamako Biennial (Mali, 2019); Documenta 14 (Athens, Greece, 2017); and many others.
Khalili has received numerous accolades, including the Sharjah Biennial Prize (2023), the Terry Riley Humanitarian Award (AID For Life, New York, USA, 2022), and Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute Fellowship (Harvard University, USA, 2018). The artist was also a nominee of the Guggenheim’s Hugo Boss Prize (New York, USA, 2018) and the Artes Mundi Prize (Cardiff, UK, 2018).
Khalili’s artworks are part of major public collections such as MoMA (NY, USA), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, The Netherlands), IVAM (Valencia, Spain), and the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Oslo), among many others.
To get more information about Between Circles and Constellations, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting Molding Anew, Rand Abdul Jabbar’s solo show. We would also recommend that you attend Artist’s Rooms: Augustine Paredes, which is on view at Jameel Arts Centre.
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