Past Disquiet is a documentary and archival exhibition that excavates and examines histories of international artistic solidarity with the struggle against apartheid, the struggle against the Pinochet dictatorship, and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. While the exhibition’s framework spans the 1960s to the 1990s, the engagement of artists in political causes, locally and internationally has, of course, always continued.
In recent months this has been most prominent with the global swell of artist-activist actions organised in solidarity with the Palestinian people. From the streets to art and digital spaces, cultural workers are organising and creating, using their artistry and networks as a powerful tool in activism, protest, raising awareness, and bearing witness. At the same time, many are navigating an increasingly censorious and punitive arts ecosystem.
On Thursday, 6 June at 6:00 pm (SAST), Zeitz MOCAA will host a webinar titled Artistic Solidarity Today: Organising and Strategies of Art and Exhibition Making.
This gathering invites cultural workers Rawan Masri, Adam Broomberg, Thania Petersen, Pablo Abufom Silva, Kareem Estefan, and Tali Keren whose work has engaged these issues for many years. The panel will include a contextual introduction by the Past Disquiet curators, Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti.
Zeitz MOCAA’s curatorial and exhibition programming is generously supported by Gucci.
Date & Time:
Thursday, 6 June 2024
6:00 PM (SAST)
Cost: The series is free and takes place via Zoom. Registration is required. Kindly click the link below to register and join the webinar.
MEET THE PANELLISTS
RAWAN MASRI
Rawan Masri graduated with honours from the University of Southern California with a BA in Middle East Studies and Political Science and a minor in Arabic and is currently studying for her MA in Critical Cultural Studies at Birzeit University in the West Bank, Palestine. She is a translator and writer at the Palestinian Museum, where the This is Not an Exhibition artistic demonstration by Shababeek for contemporary art and the Eltiqa Art Gallery is being hosted, as their own spaces were destroyed in Gaza. She currently lives in Ramallah with her husband Fathi Nemer, and together they launched the collection of resources for organizers and all those wishing to learn more about Palestine that is DecolonizePalestine.com.
ADAM BROOMBERG
Adam Broomberg is a South African artist, activist and educator. He currently lives and works in Berlin. Broomberg was a visiting professor for Media Arts at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany until his recent banning. He is a practice supervisor for the MA in Photography & Society at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. He formerly taught for two decades, he was one half of the artist duo Broomberg & Chanarin.
Broomberg’s activist work currently includes having developed Artists + Allies x Hebron (AHH) which he co-directs alongside the celebrated Palestinian human rights defender Issa Amro. AHH aims to draw the attention of the international community to the situation in Hebron H2, where Israel exercises military control and extensive surveillance over Palestinians in the West Bank. Their last project, Counter Surveillance entailed installing surveillance cameras in Olive groves in Palestine to help protect the trees from destruction. Their current project Anchor in the Landscape, a survey of olive trees in Occupied Palestine has been published by MACK and is currently exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia. Broomberg has been subject to ongoing cancellation and legal persecution from German authorities for his vocal stance against Israeli Zionism and Palestinian solidarity.
PABLO ABUFOM SILVA
Photo credit: Victor Vallejos
Pablo Abufom Silva is a philosopher, political activist and translator based in Santiago, Chile. He was an active participant in the 2019 popular revolt. Pablo is spokesperson for the Coordinadora por Palestina, a coalition of social movements in solidarity with Palestine. He’s a member of the political grouping Movimiento Solidaridad and part of the board of Alternativa, Institute for Anti-capitalist Studies.
THANIA PETERSEN
Thania Petersen is a multi-disciplinary artist who uses photography, performance and installation to address the intricacies and complexities of her identity in contemporary South Africa. Petersen’s reference points sit largely in Islam and in creating awareness about its religious, cultural and traditional practices. She attempts to unpack contemporary trends of Islamophobia through her analysis of the continuing impact of colonialism, European and American imperialism, and the increasing influence of right-wing ideologies. Threads in her work include the history of colonialist imperialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as the social and cultural impact of westernised consumer culture. Her work is informed by her Cape Malay heritage, and the practice of Sufi Islamic religious ceremonies. In 2023, as part of Cape Town’s Infecting the City public arts festival, Petersen designed three taxis (minibuses) that declare solidarity with Palestinians. The vehicles are covered in keffiyehs, pre-1948 maps of Palestine, lists of the martyred, and images of noted Palestinian revolutionaries, journalists, and intellectuals like Leila Khaled, Motaz Aziza, and Edward Said. Petersen has been subject to backlash from art institutions and collectors for her vocal stance against Zionism and colonialism. She organizes with African Artists Against Apartheid.
KAREEM ESTEFAN
Kareem Estefan is a writer, editor, and Assistant Professor of Film and Screen Studies at the University of Cambridge, currently working on a book on witnessing and worldbuilding in Palestinian moving-image art. His research centers on Palestinian and Arab visual culture, documentary media practices, and activist engagements with colonialism in contemporary art. Estefan is co-editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books, 2017), an anthology of essays on artists’ activism, censorship, solidarity, the BDS movement, and other boycott campaigns. His writing has appeared in publications including 4 Columns, Art in America, Feminist Media Histories, Frieze, Journal of Visual Culture, Third Text, and World Records, and he has forthcoming essays in the book anthologies Producing Palestine and The Borders of Art.
TALI KEREN
Tali Keren is an artist, educator, and organizer born in Jerusalem and based in Brooklyn. Her work investigates historical and contemporary manifestations of settler colonialism and ethno-nationalism. She focuses on the insidious ties between Israel and the American christian right, and how the two affect their respective mechanisms of propaganda and state violence. Her current research centers on hydro-power and the political economy of desalination in the American southwest and the SWANA region. Keren’s practice is grounded in collaborations with artists, scholars, scientists, and activists. She is a founding member of Shoresh, an anti-Zionist organization of Israelis in the U.S. and has been active in solidarity and anti-apartheid work in Palestine. Keren is an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University and has taught art in New York City’s public schools throughout the five boroughs.
Image Credit: Past Disquiet installation view. Photo by Ramiie_G, courtesy of Zeitz MOCAA.