On Monday, March 20 and Tuesday, March 21, Khaled Jarrar will guide a workshop for students interested in learning the story behind Khaled’s work. The starting point of the workshop is personal perspective and the introduction of his own personal themes as a basis for developing an artistic body of work. Chokri Ben Chikha, lecturer at Performance is co-mentoring.  

THE SOCIAL POTENTIAL OF ARTISTIC INTERVENTIONS    

With photographs, videos, installations, films and performances focused on his native Palestine, multidisciplinary artist Khaled Jarrar explores the impact of contemporary power struggles on ordinary citizens and seeks to maximize the social potential of artistic interventions. Over the past decade, Jarrar has used the subject of Palestine, particularly the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, as a starting point for larger investigations of militarized societies, including the gendered spaces of violence and the ties between economic and state powers that fuel and benefit from war or political conflict. Jarrar’s bold and sometimes controversial projects often span multiple media and have earned him international recognition. Most recently, Jarrar received the 2017 General Grants program award for Cinema from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture for his film Displaced in Heaven, a documentary that follows an exiled Palestinian family fleeing Syria.   

Seeking a wide audience through public performances and interventions, Jarrar has also presented his projects abroad. On the streets of Helsinki, Finland, in 2014, he built a temporary Hunger Wall, a barrier composed of loaves of bread that symbolizes the thin line between prosperity and poverty, especially under military occupation. With Dis-/Obey, he invited dozens of volunteers to participate in a military march that ultimately placed them in the face of Jarrar’s outspoken orders and an installation of camouflage uniforms. Commissioned by Checkpoint Helsinki as part of the Helsinki Festival, Dis-/Obey explores military power, disobedience and individual responsibility in conflict zones.   

Khaled Jarrar was born in Jenin in 1976 and lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine. Jarrar completed his Interior Design studies at the Palestinian Polytechnic University in 1996 and graduated from the International Academy of Art Palestine with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2011. The following year, his documentary The Infiltrators (2012) won several awards at the 9th annual Dubai International Film Festival, confirming its importance in global cinema.   

(c) Samira El Khadraoui & Sam De Buysere