Exhibition
From 17 February to 28 May 2023

Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations

finished

"Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations" exhibition view. Photo: Miquel Coll

Bouchra Khalili has put together a repertoire of life stories that talk about belonging, anti-colonial struggles and the strategies for resistance of subjugated communities.

We are all witnesses of our own history, but whose history is consolidated as collective memory? Exploring modes of historiography and drawing on conversations and archival material, the artistic practice of Bouchra Khalili (Casablanca, 1975, lives and works in Berlin) is an exploration of anti-colonial struggles, post-colonial histories of liberation and solidarity. Interweaving historical accounts and real-life stories, her works reinforce the political agency of subjects rendered invisible by the nation-state model of citizen membership.

Language and speech are a central part of Khalili’s investigations and are employed as a powerful form of resistance to hegemonic powers. The exhibition’s title refers to Al-Halqa, literally ‘the circle’, ‘the assembly’, a centuries-old tradition of storytelling in public spaces in Morocco, in which the audience participation is an essential part and where stories unfold in multiple layers. With history in constant dialogue with our present, the exhibition is a meditation on civic action and the need for what the artist calls ‘radical citizenship’.

		
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dates

From 17 February to 28 May 2023

documentation

Brochure

title

Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations

dates

From 17 February to 28 May 2023

title

Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations

documentation

Brochure

artist

Bouchra Khalili

Casablanca, 1975

She graduated in Film & Media Studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle and Visual Arts at the Ecole Nationale d’Arts de Paris-Cergy. Encompassing film, video, installation, photography, printmaking, and publishing, Khalili’s practice explores imperial and colonial continuums as epitomized by contemporary instances of illegal migration and the politics of memory of anti-colonial struggles and international solidarity. Deeply informed by the legacy of post-independence avant-gardes and the vernacular traditions of her native Morocco, Khalili’s approach develops strategies of storytelling at the intersection of history and micro-narratives. Combining documentary and conceptual practices, she investigates questions of self-representation, autonomous agency, and forms of resistance of communities rendered invisible by the nation-state model.

Khalili’s work has been subject to many international solo exhibitions, including at FFT Düsseldorf (2022); Bildmuseet, Umea (2021); Oslo Kunstforening and Fotogalleriet, Oslo (2020); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2019); Museum Folkwang, Essen (2018); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2018); Secession, Vienna (2018); CAAC, Sevilla (2017); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2017); MoMA, New York (2016); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015); MACBA, Barcelona (2015); PAMM, Miami (2013).

Her work was also included in collective international manifestations such as the 2nd Lahore Biennial (2020); the 12th Bamako Biennial (2019); BienalSur, Buenos Aires (2019); Documenta 14, Athens (2017); the Milano Triennale (2017); the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); La Triennale, Paris (2012); the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012); and the 10th Sharjah Biennial (2011).

She participated to numerous collective exhibitions in international institutions such as the Fondazione Sandretto, Turin (2021); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); CAM, St. Louis (2021); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2020); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018, 2020); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2019); Cardiff National Museum (2018); MAXXI, Rome (2018, 2021); MCA, Sydney (2016); Kunsthaus, Zurich (2015); Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven (2014); New Museum, New York (2014); Carré d’Art, Nîmes (2013); Tropen Museum, Amsterdam (2013); Haus Der Welt, Berlin (2010, 2013); Hayward Gallery, London (2012); South London Gallery (2012); Cité Internationale de l’Immigration, Paris (2012); Beirut Art Center (2011); Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2011); Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2008).

In 2022, she received the inaugural Terry Riley Humanitarian Award. A nominee of the Guggenheim’s Hugo Boss Prize (2018) and the Artes Mundi Prize (2018), she was also the recipient of the Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute Fellowhip (2017-2018), the Ibsen Award (2017), the Abraaj Art Prize (2014), the Sam Art Prize (2013), daad Artists-in-Berlin (2012), and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics Fellowship, New York (2011-2013).

She is a Professor of Contemporary Art at the Angewandte University in Vienna, and a founding member of La Cinémathèque de Tanger, an artist-run non-profit organization.