Imperial War Museum, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society with the support of the Imperial War Museum and Wolverhampton Museum & Art Gallery, 2014
Larissa Sansour (b. 1973, Jerusalem) studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. Her work has been included in biennials in Istanbul, Busan and Liverpool. Recent solo shows include the Centre for Photography, Copenhagen (2012), DEPO, Istanbul (2011) and Kulturhuset, Stockholm (2010).
Sansour’s interdisciplinary practice engages with contemporary geopolitics and cultural identity in relation to the unstable situation in the Middle East through mediums including video, photography and installation.
Nation Estate (2012) explores ideas of architecture, border crossings and restrictions, access to resources, and community and identity evidenced in shared histories, built heritage and food culture. It addresses a key theme which is concerned with boundaries and movement and the restrictions placed on the everyday lives of Palestinians, proposing a satirical solution to the current political deadlock as a single high-rise building containing a Palestinian ‘homeland’. This fantastical solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict is a disturbingly dystopian vision in which the inhabitants’ local areas are digitally reconstructed inside a tower and the water supply is sponsored by NGOs. Nation Estate is Sansour’s most ambitious and sophisticated film to date.
Over the past two years the Imperial War Museum and Wolverhampton Art Gallery have partnered in research and collect a body of work focusing on the Arab/Israeli conflict, which has included a visit to Palestine in April 2013.