Please join us on Thursday, 31 August and Thursday, 7 September from 6 - 8pm for a Reading Group with artist Chafa Ghaddar at Common Room, Warehouse 51.

Born out of a response to Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, the book by Tricia Hersey, this public programme by artist Chafa Ghaddar invites audiences to collectively reflect on and reimagine the notion of rest in contemporary life. Over two sessions, I. Rest is Resistance and II. The Pool People, we will take a closer look at filmic, sonic, architectural, philosophical, and political manifestations of the body in rest. We hope for the session to be fluid and interactive, encouraging participants to tap into their own everyday lived experiences and artistic inclinations as they unpack the reading material.

The texts and visuals will be shared upon RSVP. Register here.

About the Artist

Chafa Ghaddar (b. 1986) was born in Lebanon and currently lives in Dubai. She graduated from ALBA, Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, where she earned her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts in 2007 and her Master’s degree in Visual Arts in 2009. In 2012, she attended an intensive course in fresco and traditional painting techniques in Florence, Italy. While developing a career in wall painting and surface finishing, she explores the use of fresco in contemporary practices as well as other processes, and works equally with murals, painting, drawing, photography and mixed media. She executes site-specific and public art works and has participated in several collective exhibitions between Beirut, Dubai, New York, Brussels and Verona, Italy. She was awarded the Boghossian Art Prize for painting in 2014, and was artist in residence at the Villa Empain in Brussels in October and November 2015. Ghaddar had her debuting Solo show “The Visit” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a daydream”in 2021. She has been selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited with them “Recesses”, her first solo show in the UAE. Chafa was commissioned to produce a site-specific work for the 16th Lyon Biennale “Manifesto of Fragility” curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. In 2023 she had her first gallery show in the UAE “Beneath Latent Skies” with Tabari Artspace.

The public programme by Chafa Ghaddar will take place as part of her Guest Residency at the Alserkal Arts Foundation.