Ahlam Shibli Explained

Ahlam Shibli
Native Name:أحلام شبلي
Native Name Lang:ar
Birth Place:Shibli-Umm al-Ghanam, Israel
Occupation:Artist, photographer

Ahlam Shibli (Arabic: أحلام شبلي, born 1970) is a Palestinian photographer, and was born in Shibli-Umm al-Ghanam, Israel.[1] [2] Her work explores themes of home and belonging and documents the life of Arabs in villages unrecognized by Israel in the Negev and northern Galilee regions.[3] [4]

Biography

Shibli was born in Israel.[5] [6] [7] The catalog for an exhibition she held in Italy stated that she defines herself as a "Palestinian from Israel."[8] At her "Goter" exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum, the museum agreed to define Shibli as an "Israeli Palestinian" in the monthly notice of exhibitions, but refused to include this description in the exhibit catalog. Traditionally, Israel's art scene has tended to blur the identity of Arab artists in Israel under the label "Palestinians", though it has begun to include "Palestine" in some form, within limits.[8]

Artistic career

Her artistic medium is photography.[9] Her work explores the life of what she describes as "her people," Arabs of Bedouin descent in Israel. Adrian Searle describes her photographs as "unsentimental and undramatic...extremely moving."[5] In 2005, she photographed Israeli-Arab soldiers who volunteer for military service in the Israeli Defense Forces Tracker Unit.[10]

She has also photographed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in London, Zurich, Barcelona and Tel Aviv; foreigner caregivers and the elderly in Barcelona; and children in orphanages in Poland.[11]

Shibli was chosen as the first Artist-in-Residence for the city of Acre in a program sponsored by that city in conjunction with Israel's Culture and Sport Ministry. Her work, "Five Senses," was exhibited at the 2002 Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre.[12]

She has participated in the 27th São Paulo Biennial (2006/7),[13] documenta 12 (2008),[14] the 3rd Athens Biennale (2011),[15] and documenta 14 (2017).[16]

Awards

In 2003, Shibli won the 9th Nathan Gottesdiener Israeli Art Prize.

Works

Solo exhibitions

Ahlam Shibli's photo works are a complex testimony to the presence and absence of a home. Using documentary procedures, Shibli has developed a body of work eschewing the objectivity associated with photojournalism. Rather than visual evidence, her photographic practice involves a conversational engagement with the subjects. Each series encapsulates the knowledge obtained through an empirical contact with colonialism and conflict while eluding climax and drama often deployed by media representations.[17]

Series such as Goter (2002–03), Arab al-Sbaih (2007) and The Valley (2007–08) are informed by a topographic character. Shibli's views of landscapes, towns, precarious settlements, interiors, and exteriors, as well as cemeteries, exhibit an accumulation of signs that reveal the effects of the Israeli rule over the land. An outstanding example of this complex narrative is Trackers (2005), a series of photographs concerned with young Arab men who decide to enroll in the Israeli army. In the artist's own words, the project investigates the price paid by a colonized minority to a majority of colonizers, so they can be accepted, change their identity, survive, or perhaps all of this and more.[17]

More recent works such as Trauma (2008–09) have confronted the ambiguous nature of colonialism and occupation and the relentless search for the meanings of home. Starting with commemorations of the atrocious massacre at Tulle that took place on 9 July 1944, Shibli reflects on the paradox of a population that resisted the German occupation, only to embark a few years later on a colonial war in Indochina and Algeria. Series such as this, or the one dedicated to the daily life in Polish orphanages, Dom Dziecka. The house starves when you are away (2008), or Eastern LGBT (2006), in which Shibli documents the lives of transsexual communities, extend her modus operandi beyond the Palestinian issue.[17]

In the series Death (2011–12), a pivotal work in this exhibition, Shibli explores some of the ways in which the absent ones are present again – 're-presented': Palestinian fighters who fell in the course of their armed resistance against an Israeli incursion, victims of the Israeli military killed under different circumstances (Shahid), men and women who exploded themselves to assassin Israelis (Istishhadi), or the prisoners who in very global terms might be considered failed martyrs.[17] [18]

The numerous representations of martyrs are the visual motif that allows Shibli to reveal how the Palestinian community structures the public and domestic sphere around these absent figures and their death. Often reduced to iconic reproductions that flatten bodies and faces in the name of national identity politics, the compulsive proliferation of memorials bears testimony to the phantomatic nature of home.[17]

2017

2013

2009

2007

2006

2003

2002

2000

1999

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Livneh . Neri . 11 February 2004 . When Art Imitates Life . en . . live . 23 October 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231024004754/https://www.haaretz.com/2004-02-11/ty-article/when-art-imitates-life/0000017f-e807-df5f-a17f-fbdfb41e0000 . 24 October 2023.
  2. Downey . Anthony . Spring 2009 . Thresholds of a Coming Community: Photography and Human Rights . Aperture . 194 . 41 . 0003-6420 . 24473384.
  3. Book: Demos, T.J. . Photography between Poetry and Politics: The Critical Position of the Photographic Medium in Contemporary Art . . 2008 . 9789058676641 . van Gelder . Hilde . Leuven, Belgium . 123–140, 182–185 . en . Recognizing the Unrecognized: The Photographs of Ahlam Shibli . 228371704 . Westgeest . Helen . http://www.ucl.ac.uk/art-history/about_us/academic_staff/dr_tj_demos/further_publications/Demos-Shibli . https://web.archive.org/web/20120501233321/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/art-history/about_us/academic_staff/dr_tj_demos/further_publications/Demos-Shibli . 1 May 2012 . dead.
  4. Book: Goodman, Susan Tumarkin . Dateline Israel: New Photography and Video Art . . 2007 . 978-0-300-11156-9 . New York . 28–29 . en . A Matter of Place . 70884949 . Google Books.
  5. Web site: Searle . Adrian . 7 October 2003 . What lies beneath . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20140912100822/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/oct/07/photography . 12 September 2014 . 24 March 2008 . The Guardian.
  6. Web site: 5 December 2007 . Ahlam Shibli . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140508025833/http://www.desterritoires.com/spip.php?article104 . 8 May 2014 . 24 March 2008 . Séminaire Des territoires . fr.
  7. Web site: Aspden . Rachel . 10 July 2006 . Between the lines . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080422205428/http://www.newstatesman.com/200607100036 . 22 April 2008 . 24 March 2008 . The New Statesman.
  8. News: Gilerman . Dana . 22 August 2003 . No Longer Given the Brush-off . en . . live . 23 October 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231024010435/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/2003-08-22/ty-article/no-longer-given-the-brush-off/0000017f-e872-dc91-a17f-fcff7f1d0000 . 24 October 2023.
  9. Web site: Index of Artists: Ahlam Shibli – Biography . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071018073049/http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/intartdata/artists/asia/pse/shibli/bio/ . 18 October 2007 . 24 March 2008 . Universes in Universe: World of Art .
  10. http://www.hausderkunst.de/?id=83&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2387 Hausderkunst: Ahlam Shibli
  11. Web site: 2011 . Main Programme: A Rock and a Hard Place . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233634/http://biennale3.thessalonikibiennale.gr/en/artists/Ahlam_Shibli . 3 March 2016 . 25 October 2023 . 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.
  12. Web site: Exhibitions Page - Ahlam Shibli - Solo Exhibits . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20221204010223/https://museum.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/en/exhibitions/?artist=Shibli,%20Ahlam&list=S . 4 December 2022 . 26 October 2023 . Information Center for Israeli Art.
  13. Rattemeyer . Christian . February 2007 . 27th Sao Paulo Bienal: Sao Paulo . dead . . 45 . 6 . 10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120713043402/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_6_45/ai_n24242086/ . 13 July 2012 . 24 March 2008 . FindArticles.
  14. Web site: 2007 . Ahlam Shibli - Goter - Photograph 2002/03 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071020173828/http://www.documenta12.de/uebersichtsdetails.html?L=1&gk=A&level=&knr=37 . 20 October 2007 . 24 March 2008 . . Documenta.
  15. Dezeuze . Anna . Dec 2011 . 3rd Athens Biennale: Monodrome/3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art: Old Intersections - Make it New . . 352 . 28–30 . 0142-6702.
  16. Web site: Chevrier . Jean-François . 2017 . Ahlam Shibli . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220517114759/https://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/13589/ahlam-shibli . 17 May 2022 . 25 October 2023 . . en.
  17. Web site: 25 January 2013 . Exhibition - Ahlam Shibli. Phantom Home . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231024005210/https://www.macba.cat/en/exhibitions-activities/exhibitions/ahlam-shibli-phantom-home . 24 October 2023 . 25 October 2023 . . en.
  18. Anani . Yazid . Spring 2013 . And My Shrine Is My Mother's Salon: On Ahlam Shibli's Death . . en . 32 . 118–128 . 10.1086/670187 . 1465-4253 . 670187.
  19. Web site: 2017-08-01 . Ahlam Shibli: Staring . 2024-04-19 . Remai Modern . en-US.
  20. Bradley . Kim . 1 May 2013 . Barcelona - Ahlam Shibli - MACBA . . 101 . 5 . 177–178 . 0004-3214.
  21. Web site: 20 March 2009 . Ahlam Shibli. Wydomowienie (Unhoming) . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230129085318/https://artmuseum.pl/en/wystawy/ahlam-shibli-wydomowienie . 29 January 2023 . 26 October 2023 . . en.
  22. Web site: Leaver-Yap . Isla . 12 February 2007 . Everyday war . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20210105054313/http://www.list.co.uk/article/1338-ahlam-shibli/ . 5 January 2021 . 25 March 2008 . The List.
  23. Demos . T. J. . November 2006 . Ahlam Shibli - Max Wigram Gallery . live . . 45 . 3 . 315 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231027203538/https://www.artforum.com/events/ahlam-shibli-3-201279/ . 27 October 2023 . 27 October 2023.
  24. Web site: Bell . Eugenia . 14 August 2006 . Ahlam Shibli . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231027203037/https://www.artforum.com/events/ahlam-shibli-2-182627/ . 27 October 2023 . 27 October 2023 . . en-US.
  25. Web site: Mears . Emily Speers . Fall 2006 . Ahlam Shibli: Trackers . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230604045041/https://bidoun.org/articles/ahlam-shibli-trackers . 4 June 2023 . 27 October 2023 . . en.
  26. Web site: 2006 . Trackers . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210926122321/https://www.kunsthallebasel.ch/en/exhibition/trackers-2/ . 26 September 2021 . 27 October 2023 . . en-US.
  27. Web site: Artist Center: Ahlam Shibli - Amra . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231027213542/https://museum.imj.org.il/artcenter/includes/item.asp?id=727821 . 27 October 2023 . 27 October 2023 . Information Center for Israeli Art.
  28. Web site: Palestinian Art - List of Exhibits . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20231027214441/https://hagar-gallery.com/palestin/ex06.htm . 27 October 2023 . 27 October 2023 . Hagar Art Gallery.
  29. Laïdi-Hanieh . Adila . Adila Laïdi-Hanieh . Summer 2007 . In the Mirror of the Occupier: Palestinian Art through Israeli Eyes . . 36 . 4 . 71 . 10.1525/jps.2007.36.4.65 . 0377-919X . 10.1525/jps.2007.36.4.65.
  30. Höller . Christian . Spring 2013 . Walls, No Bridges: The Relation Between Revealing and Disguising in Ahlam Shibli's Photographic Practice . . en . 32 . 106–117 . 10.1086/670186 . 1465-4253 . 670786.

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