When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor

The exhibition When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor, created by Alserkal Initiatives in partnership with Cité internationale des arts and in collaboration with Lightbox, will take place from 16-21 April 2024 in Venice.

Together with our partners, we created this exhibition with the intent to provide a space where the convergence of practices and practitioners can offer room for shared contemplation and mutual exchange. We have endeavoured to shape a moment on the periphery of the professional preview of the 60th International Art Exhibition-La Biennale d'Arte di Venezia, welcoming audiences and participants in a counter-space to our increasingly polarised world in which places of debate and exchange are rapidly shrinking.

Some of the participating artists are familiar names to Alserkal Avenue and Alserkal Arts Foundation. Visual artist Majd Abdel Hamid was featured in the 2022 group show The Memory in Our Bones at Green Art Gallery and the On This Land exhibition at Concrete in November 2023. Dima Srouji, architect and visual artist, is the force behind This Is Not Your Grave, Alserkal Arts Foundation's 2024 public art commission, currently standing in Alserkal Avenue. DAAR duo Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, who won the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale are long-term collaborators with Alserkal Arts Foundations, and Shada Safadi, based in Golan Heights, is a former resident of the Foundation. Joining these practitioners from the Alserkal Initiatives network are current and former residents of the Cité internationale des arts’ renowned programme.

Full list of artists and programme contributors include:

Artists: Majd Abdel Hamid, Yana Bachynska, Rehaf Al Batniji, Saad Eltinay, D Harding, Adelita Husni-Bey, Nepal Picture Library, Nge Lay, Museum of Breath, Koushna Navabi, Shada Safadi, Dima Srouji and Jasbir Puar, Paula Valero Comín.

Programme Contributors: DAAR - Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care (Bani Khoshnoudi, Magdi Masaraa, Elena Sorokina), Maya Al Khaldi and Sarouna, R22 Tout-Monde, Zora Snake, Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.

Find more information on the featured artists, their artworks and programming here.

Download the Exhibition Guide (including essays by curator Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Melissa Gronlund and The Palestinian Museum)

Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and Alserkal Initatives' Executive Director Vilma Jurkute spoke about the exhibition to Art Review. Read the full article.

16-21 April 2024
My Art Guides Venice Meeting Point, Navy Officers’ Club, Arsenale, Venice

Created by Alserkal Initiatives in partnership with Cité internationale des arts
Curated by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Arts and Culture Programme Manager, Cité internationale des arts
Produced by LightBox/My Art Guide

Curatorial team: Zaina Zaarour and simona dvorak

Photo credits: Saad Eltinay, from the photographic series “Alive and Eternally Rising”
Feb 2021 - Dec 2022, courtesy of the artist.