letter to a friend is an essay film that revolves around the conditions of life in Bethlehem under various Israeli violations, with a focus on the artist’s family home and its surrounding area — a site that bears witness to a long history of events.  

In this film, the artist reads an intimate, moving and detailed letter to her friend about the history of the family and their home, within the context of a city and what it has been through over the past 100 years. The film highlights the constant threats that have become part of the reality of life under occupation.

The film is in English. To register, please fill in the form here. 

Emily Jacir 
As poetic as it is political and biographical, Emily Jacir’s work investigates translation, transformation, resistance, and movement. Jacir has built a complex and compelling oeuvre through a diverse range of media and methodologies that include unearthing historical material, performative gestures and in-depth research. Her works have been widely exhibited all over the world since 1994, and she is the recipient of several awards including a Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); a Prince Claus Award (2007); the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum (2008); the Alpert Award (2011) from the Herb Alpert Foundation; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (2015); the American Academy of Arts and Letters prize (2023) among others. Solo exhibitions include Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2023); the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016-17); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Darat al Funun, Amman (2014-2015); Beirut Art Center (2010); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009). She is the founder and Director of Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research in Bethlehem, Palestine. In December 2023 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. 

Nadi Abusaada
Dr. Nadi Abusaada is an architect and a historian. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Architecture at ETH Zürich. Nadi completed his Ph.D. and M.Phil. degrees in architecture at the University of Cambridge. Before moving to Zurich, Nadi was the Aga Khan Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Architecture + Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Nadi is also the co-founder of Arab Urbanism and an editorial contributor at The Architectural Review. He also curated and contributed to research-based exhibitions in Venice, Zurich, Montreal, Dubai and Ramallah.