Marwa Arsanios

Marwa Arsanios, Have You Ever Killed A Bear Or Becoming Jamila [Hiç Bir Ayı Öldürdün Mü Ya Da Jamila Olmak], 2013-2014 Galerie Mor Charpentier, Paris; Alt Art Space, Istanbul
Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris
Have You Ever Killed A Bear Or Becoming Jamila, 2013-2014 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris
Have You Ever Killed A Bear Or Becoming Jamila, 2013-2014 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris
Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris
Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris
Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013 Courtesy Of Mor Charpentier, Paris

Mor Charpentier Gallery, Paris; Alt art space, Istanbul

Opening Reception: Wednesday, July 13, 2016, 19:00–21:00
Exhibition Dates: July 13 –October 9, 2016
Opening Hours: Tuesday–Saturdays, 13:00-21:00, Sundays 11:00-19:00

Protocinema presents Marwa Arsanios’ single channel video Have You Ever Killed a Bear, or Becoming Jamila, 2013-2014, and her interactive installation Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013, which each investigate responses to politics of resistance whether through armed struggle or through speech, at Alt Art Space. Both projects are part of the long term project on Al-Hilal magazine 1950-60’s.

Engaged with the topic of history writing women and women writing history in the Arab world, Arsanios’ single channel video Have You Ever Killed a Bear, or Becoming Jamila, 2013-2014, and the installation Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013, are drawn from the artist’s larger Al Hilal Project, 2011-ongoing, focusing on the left-wing Egyptian magazine Al Hilal from the 1960s. While Olga’s Notes, The Library presents books from the “What you should read section” in the magazine to underscore the ideological roots of a rare instance of utopianism in the history of Arabic-speaking peoples, Have You Ever Killed a Bear, or Becoming Jamila zooms in on one particular figure--namely, Algerian freedom fighter Jamila Bouhired--who became an icon through the circulation of magazines like Al Hilal. By casting actors not only to play the part of Jamila, but also to reflect on the role of playing Jamila who participated in violent attacks against the French occupying forces, Arsanios reveals a cross-temporal dialogue among these women, addressing (infra)structures of patriarchy, subjugation, and canonization.

Marwa Arsanios - Learning to Dance - lecture performance, with one dancer, will be presented at Alt art space the third week of September.

Marwa Arsanios, 1978, Washington DC, Solo exhibitions: Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2016; Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, 2015; Art in General, New York, 2015. Selected group exhibitions: The 5th Thessaloniki Biennale, 2015; Jerusalem Show VI, 2012; 12th Istanbul Biennial, 2011; Home Works 5 and 6, Beirut, 2010 and 2013. Arsanios was the recipient of the 2012 Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, and a research grant from the Arab Image Foundation in 2009. She holds an MFA from Wimbledon College of Art, University of the Arts, London, and was a researcher in the Fine Art Department at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht during 2011-2012. Arsanios lives in Beirut, where she co-founded 98 Weeks Research Project in 2007.

Notes, Texts, Annotations or How to Read While Walking