The A.M. Qattan Foundation and Matadero Madrid Centre for Contemporary Creation announced the launch of the “Community Art Practices” residency in Madrid and Ramallah, organising two residencies in each city.
This residency is an announcement of the first collaboration between A.M. Qattan Foundation and Matadero, through which the residencies should give equal opportunities for Palestinian artists to stay in Madrid, and Spanish artists to stay at the AMQF building in Ramallah.
The residency runs from September 23 until December 8, 2019, during which Palestinian artists Safaa Khatib and Mahdi Baraghithi will move to the Matadero Madrid Centre, and two Spanish artists will be hosted at the AMQF. After completing the residency at the end of November, artists will be offered the opportunity to participate in an exhibition in Madrid.
“This Kills That”
During her residency in Madrid, artist Safaa Khatib will work on her “Untitled” project, which she describes as “this kills that”. Khatib will address the human experience, by involving Palestinian refugees inside of Palestine and in the diaspora in artistic interventions done on places she’s investigating, using audio, video, live testimonies of those who have been forced to leave an architectural legacy.
“This Kills That” investigates buildings and mosques which date back to the end of the 9th century; turned by the occupation into museums and art spaces for Israeli artists. Through her research, Khatib uses those structures in their current form as artistic instruments for criticizing art. It is an artistic production that spies on what has been stolen and represents the history that has been obliterated and tarnished by the occupation authorities.
Safaa Khatib was born in Kafr Kanna in 1948 Palestinian occupied territories. She is a Palestinian photographer and activist. Khatib received her MA in Cinema Studies from Haifa University in 2018 and her MFA in photography from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem during which she focused on documentation. Her project entitled “Baghdad Studio” documents the daily life of Palestinian in Jerusalem, whose property is threated with confiscation by the Israeli occupation authorities. Khatib also documented the Afro-Palestinian community in Jerusalem and focused on the lives of Jerusalemite women in the Old City, portraying their kitchens as the small spaces in which they spend most of their time.
Khatib is the winner of the 2016 Palest’ In & Out Photography Award. She won first prize in the Young Artist of the Year Award (YAYA) in 2018 from A.M. Qattan Foundation for her project “The Braids Rebellion” which tells the stories of Palestinian female prisoners, all under the age of 20, behind Israeli bars.
Arab Masculinity
During his residency, artist Mahdi Baraghithi will focus on the deconstruction, representation and construction of the concept of masculinity in Arab society. He studies the image of men in society through his own body, using photos that depict him in different situations to reveal stereotypes about how men are expected to look, and the different stages of producing a man; from childhood, through adolescence to old age.
These questions form the cornerstone of Baraghithi’s research, which he has represented in different forms using video art and performance that present people with a different perspective on men and masculinity.
Throughout his residency, Baraghithi aims to complete a visual artistic research, and begin working on an artwork based on memory and interviews he has conducted after looking into his mother’s family history in al-Wihdat refugee camp in Jordan, particularly in the aftermath of Black September.
In his research, Baraghithi focuses on how camp residents deal with political events and upheavals, and the stories that have not been documented. Baragithi wonders, what a community means at such times? What makes a community look the way it is? He stresses the necessity of investigating a particular point in Palestinian history inside refugee camps and tracing his family history through creating comfortable spaces -photos and videos- inside his camera.
Mahdi Baraghithi is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Ramallah. He received his MFA from ENSA Bourges, France in 2018. He was a fellow at the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut in 2015. Baraghithi received his BA in Contemporary Visual Arts from the International Academy of Art – Palestine and completed a semester at Malmö Art Academy in Sweden.