Basma al-Sharif
Lives and works in Berlin.
Working nomadically between the Middle East, Europe, and North America, and currently based in Berlin, Basma al-Sharif—an artist and filmmaker of Palestinian heritage—explores cyclical political histories and conflicts. In films and installations that move backward and forward in history, between place and nonplace, she confronts the legacy of colonialism and the experience of displacement with satire, doubt, and hope.
As Eyal Sivan once commented: “Basma al-sharif’s work makes the claim for a generation of young Palestinian internationalist artists that the Palestinian perspective is in fact stronger than the metaphor of Palestine. This notion of a Palestinian perspective, of a gaze steeped in History and splintered by geography, means refusing to be enslaved, refusing to be merely a support for projection but instead providing a critical reflection on the nature of this projection.”
Basma al-Sharif (b. 1983 in Kuwait, of Palestinian origin) grew up between France, the United States and the Gaza Strip, and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her numerous films and audiovisual installations have been shown in numerous international festivals and museums. Among her future and recent personal exhibitions: Capital, Ruttenberg Contemporary Photography Series, The Art Institute of Chicago (2022), And Therefore A Philistine, SALT Galata, Istanbul (2020); A Philistine, CCA: Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow (2019); Basma Alsharif, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2019); The Gap Between Us, The Mosaics Room, London (2018); Renée’s Room, Les Modules – Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015).
Her work was included in the Aichi Triennial, the Whitney Biennale -where her feature film Ouroboros premiered in 2017-, the Sharjah Biennale and Manifesta 8. She has been nominated for the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize (2019), the Abraaj Art Prize (2018) and was also part of the first group of artists to benefit from the Consortium Commissions programme of the Mophradat organisation.
Her first exhibition at Imane Farès, On Love & Other Landscapes, with Yazan Khalili, was held in 2013.