In this talk, Foundland Collective will discuss their projects such as Real-time History (2018 - ongoing), The New World, Episode One (2018), and Groundplan Drawings (2018 - ongoing). A common thread throughout the projects is Foundland’s re-interpretation of archival material originally taken from analog institutional sources and digital crowd-sourced material.

The duo will share their approach to analyzing, navigating, and connecting important historical and contemporary archives as part of their design research practice.

The talk will be in English.

Foundland Collective was formed in 2009 by South African Lauren Alexander and Syrian Ghalia Elsrakbi and, since 2014, has been based between Amsterdam and Cairo. The duo collaboration explores underrepresented political and historical narratives by working with archives via art, design, writing, educational formats, video making, and storytelling. Throughout their development, the duo has critically reflected upon what it means to produce politically engaged work from the position of non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East.

Foundland was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship for research in the largest Arab American archive in 2015/2016 and was shortlisted for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize in 2015 and the Dutch Design Awards in 2016. In 2017 their short video, The New World, Episode One, premiered at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and in 2018 was screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In addition, The duo has lectured and exhibited widely in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, including at ISPC, New York, Ars Electronica, Linz, Impakt Festival and BAK, Utrecht, London Art Fair, Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Fikra Biennial, Sharjah and Tashweesh Feminist Festival, Cairo and Brussels. Several of Foundland’s video works are preserved and distributed by the Dutch media art archive LIMA, Amsterdam.