Yazan Khalili is a visual artist, architect, and cultural activist. Khalili's photography is detailed, reflective and full of intent. Using photography and the written word, Khalili unpacks historically constructed landscapes. Borrowing from cinematic language, images become frames where the spectator embodies the progression of time and narratives. He weaves together parallel stories over the years, forming both questions and paradoxes concerning scenery and the act of gazing, all of which are refracted through the prism of intimate politics and alienating poetics. In particular, he focuses on the effect of geographical distance on our rendering of territory, and its ability to heighten or arrest our political and sentimental attachments.
Born 1981. Works in and out of Palestine, currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. He is an architect, visual artist, and cultural producer. His works have been exhibited in several major exhibitions, including among others: Documenta fifteen 2022, KW, Berlin 2020, MoCA Torento 2020, New Photography, MoMA 2018, Jerusalem Lives, Palestinian Museum, 2017, Post-Peace, Kunstverein Stuttgart 2017, Shanghai Biennial 2016, Sharjah Biennial 2013. In 2020 he co-founded Radio Alhara, and in 2019 he co-founded The Question of Funding collective.
Yazan Khalili received a degree in architecture from Birzeit University in 2003 and in 2010 received his MA degree from the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmith's College, University of London, and in 2015 his MFA degree at Sandberg Institute, Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. He was one of the founding members of Zan Design Studio (2005-2010). He was the production coordinator for Sharjah Biennials 9 & 10, and the technical director of the inaugural exhibition of the Palestinian Museum “Jerusalem Lives” (2017). He co-curated Young Artist of the Award (YAYA) 2012, The City | The Image symposium with Goethe Institute, Ramallah 2012, The Long Journey exhibition, the UNRWA Audio-Visual archive for Palestine refugees, in 2013, and Debt exhibition at KSCC in 2018. In 2015, he co-organized Walter Benjamin in Palestine workshop and symposium, and Marx: The Ultimate Contemporary in 2018.
He is the winner of Extract V young artist prize 2015.
He has been the artistic director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre between 2015 until end of 2019, he was the Co-Chair of Photo discipline at MFA program at Bard College, NY, till 2022, and guest artist in residence at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam till 2022.
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Teaching
Bard College, Co-Chair of Photo discipline, MFA, between 2020- 2022 (Faculty member since 2019), NY
Sandberg Institute, Disarming Design, temporary program, Faculty member, since 2020, Amsterdam
Alquds Bard AQB, Media Department, Faculty member 2016 – 2018, Abu Dis, Palestine
IAAP, Faculty member 2012 – 2013, Ramallah
MECA&D, visiting tutor 2021, Maine
Rietveld – TXT department, visiting tutor 2021, Amsterdam
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Residencies:
2020 – 2022 Guest Artist in residence - Rijksakademie, Amsterdam
2017 Tabakalera, International Centre for Contemporary Culture, San Sabastian
2014 The Living Archive w/Lara Khaldi, Arsenale, Berlin
2008 Delfina Foundation, London
2006 Images of the Middle East, Danish Film School, Copenhagen
2002 Peace Boat – Global University, International Student, Tokyo
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Solo shows include:
2021 Rizq: The Giftshop, When Site Lost the Plot, Amsterdam
2020 Medusa, MoCA, Toronto
2020 Medusa, KW, Berlin
2018 No one Saw the Colors, Kunstforeningen, GL Strand, Copenhagen
2017 On the Other Side of the Law, Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai
2015 Blindness of Love, Present, Future, Artissima, with Lawrie Shabibi, Turin
2015 On Love and Other Landscapes. Mumbai Art Room
2015 The Aliens. Transit gallery, Mechelen
2014 Regarding Distance. Edge of Arabia Projects, London
2013 On Love and Other Landscapes w/Basma Alsharif. Imane Fares Gallery, Paris
2011 Landscape of Darkness. Transit Gallery, Mechelen
2008 Margins. Delfina Foundation, London
2007 Urban Impression at French Cultural Centers in Palestine
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Group shows and performances
2024
Pressing Land, Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Portugal
2023
Mu'awiya's Thread, Bis32, Tunis
2022
Documenta 15, Kassel (The Question of Funding collective)
PhotoFest, If I Had a Hammer, Houston
2021
Monitor: Surveillance, Data, and the New Panoptic, ICA, Maine
Reasonable Doubt, V2, Rotterdam
The Narrow Gate of The Here-And-Now IV, IMMA, Doblin
Under construction II, LawrieShabibi Gallery, Dubai
2020
I See You Are (Not) There, C4, Copenhagen
Crystal Clear, Para Museum, Istanbul
Hiding Our Faces Like a Dancing Wind, Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg
Key Shift, Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto
Visual Rights, Open Eye gallery, Liverpool
2019
History is not Here: Art and the Arab Imaginary, Minnesota Museum of American Art, USA
Preoccupations: Palestinian Landscapes, Institute of Advanced Uncertainty at Minnesota Street Project
Intimate Terrains, Palestinian Museum, Birzeit
Our Land, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, New York
2018
State Traps w/Jonas Staal, Mini/Goethe, New York
Tribe: Contemporary Art from the Arab World, American University Museum, Washington DC
Jerusalem Show X, Qalandiya International IV, Jerusalem
Truth is black, write over it with a mirage’s light, Darat Al Funun, Amman
Subcontracted Nations, A.M.Qattan Foundation inaugural exhibition, Ramallah
Jerusalem: Fifty-one Years of Occupation, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah
New Photography, MoMA, New York
2017
Jerusalem Lives, Palestinian Museum inaugural exhibition, Birzeit
Post Peace, Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Post Peace, Nest, Den Haag
Toxic Assets, eflux space, New York
2016
Riwaq Biennial V, Palestine.
After the Last Sky exhibition, Ballhous, Berlin.
Jerusalem show 9, Qalandia International, Jerusalem
Searching for a Present, EMMA, Espoo
Why Not Ask Again? Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin
2015
Extract V, young artist award 2015, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen.
A Million Lines, XII Baltic Triennial, Krakow
Biennial Of Photography in The Contemporary Arab World, the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Absolut Art Bar, Art Dubai, Dubai w/ Arnar Asgiersson
La Mer Au Milieu Des Terres, Es Baluard Museu d'Art Modern i Contemporani de Palma, Palm
Unused Possibilities, Forum Expanded, Berlinale, Berlin
2014
Eye on Palestine, Brussels
Love Letter to Mars, w/Lara Khaldi, OCA, Oslo
Love Letter to Mars, w/Lara Khaldi, Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafi, Cairo
Manam, Arab Cultural Center, Haifa
2013
UnMapping the World part of Expimenta Design, Portogal
Deep into that Darkness Peering, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre, Ramallah
Re-emerge, Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah
Editions#1, Edge of Arabia, London
The Lonely Crowds, /S:in/ Festival, Ramallah
HomeWorks 6, Ashakal Alwan, Beirut
2012
#Coming Together, Edge of Arabia, London.
Right to Refusal, Bergenzer. Austria
Before the Mainstream, Forum Expanded, Berlinale, Berlin
Keffiyeh, KVS, Brussels
Beyond the Last Sky, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
Eye on Palestine, Brussels
PARADISE NOW, Beursschouwburg, Brussels
Through the Roadblocks, Limassol
2011
Future of a Promise Pavilion, 54 Venice Biennial
The Jerusalem Show. Palestine
Passport to Palestine, London.
2010
New Art from Further East, Newertown Art, London
The Jerusalem Show, Jerusalem
2009
Another Shadow of the city, Jerusalem. Palestine
Mapping, Palestinian Pavilion Art Dubai, UAE
Palestine Pavilion c/o Venice Biennial 53 (with Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti)
The Tangible, with TG-Stan Theatre, Gent
2008
Hey Festival, Delfina Foundation, Granada
Occupied spaces, Mosaic Rooms, London
2006/07
The Young Artist Award, A.M.Q.F, Ramallah
Invisible, Makan, Amman