Speakers: Aissa Deebi, Salman Nawati and Shareef Sarhan
Moderated by: Reem Shadid
Amid the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and in the face of mounting destruction, starvation, and displacement, the collective Artists Together has launched a relief initiative entitled Hassala. The initiative seeks to support artists in Gaza by shedding light on their struggles, enabling them to continue their artistic practice, showcase their work, and have their voices heard.
This introductory session will present the initiative’s goals, its team, its working frameworks, and the ways in which it can be supported and promoted.
The session will be held in Arabic.
Aissa Deebi is a Palestinian artist based in Geneva, Switzerland. His multidisciplinary work explores themes of exile, displacement, and the everyday realities of post-war Palestine. Engaging personal and political histories, Deebi reflects on diaspora as a generative space, particularly through his experience as a Palestinian immigrant in post-9/11 America. Notable works include Killing Time, The Trail, and Exile Is Hard Work. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 55th Venice Biennale, Queens Museum, and Kunsthalle Osnabrück. Deebi is also an academic with an international teaching and research practice focused on art, politics, and identity.
Salman Nawati is a visual artist and visual arts teacher based in Sweden. He has been a director of arts programs for over a decade. One of the founders of the “Sahab Museum” with the HAWAF collective. He is also one of the founders of the Dahaleez collective. In his career, Salman has been a dynamic force in the cultural landscape, serving as artistic director of several festivals and sharing his experience as a teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Al-Aqsa University. His multifaceted artistic practice spans multiple media, including painting, photography, film, theatre, and music. In addition to his projects, he has several solo exhibitions. Salman has made significant participation in group exhibitions at many prestigious venues, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Arab World Institute in Paris, the Mosaic Rooms in London, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Aix-en-Provence, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial in Dubai, the A.M. Qattan Foundation in Ramallah, and the French Cultural Centers in Gaza, Ramallah, and Jerusalem, among others.
Shareef Sarhan, born in Gaza in 1976, is a visual artist and photographer. He is a founding member of Shababeek for Contemporary Art and a member of the Association of Palestinian Artists. Sarhan received his diploma in Art. He participated in the Darat Al Funun academy in Jordan. He received the Bronze award of the Festival of Arab Photographers in 2008 and the recognition award in 2007. Sarhan produced a Picture Book, "Gaza Live." His work was exhibited in Gaza, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Amman, the United States, France, Germany, and Italy.
Reem Shadid is a curator and cultural organiser who works on the emancipatory and liberatory possibilities within artistic practice. Most recently she was the Director of Beirut Art Center in Lebanon (2023-2024) and a co-curator for Small World, the 2023-2024 edition of Taipei Biennial. In 2023, she also co-curated the second edition of New Visions, the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter triennial for photography and New Media. She is a contributing editor with Infrasonica, a digital platform of non-western cultures for experimental sound and visual art practices. She was the producer and host of Radio Alhara’s show Listening with Reem Shadid; listening sessions with artists and practitioners working at the intersection of sonic, visual and literary productions (2020-2021). She also conceived and produced Aridity Lines, a podcast on local ecological knowledges and climate change in the south-eastern Mediterranean region published on TBA21-Academy radio (2021-2022). She was a resident curator at Ashkal Alwan from April to October 2021. Between 2006 - 2020 she was the Deputy Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, where she served in various capacities.