At the Venice Biennale, the oldest and most prestigious international biennial art exhibition in the world, we speak with one of the most celebrated Palestinian artists, Emily Jacir. In 2007, she won the Golden Lion here at the Venice Biennale for her work “Material for a Film,” a large-scale installation based on the life of Palestinian writer Wael Zuaiter, who was assassinated near his home in Rome, Italy, by Israeli Mossad agents in 1972. For years Jacir has created groundbreaking art to capture the Palestinian experience and other issues. In 2001, she presented a piece titled “Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages Destroyed, Depopulated, and Occupied by Israel in 1948,” consisting of a large refugee tent on which the names of 418 Palestinians villages were embroidered. She later did a project called “ex libris” that commemorated the approximately 30,000 books from Palestinian homes, libraries and institutions that were looted by Israeli authorities in 1948.
GUESTS
Emily Jacir, Palestinian artist and filmmaker. She is a professor at the International Academy of Art, Palestine, in Ramallah. Her work includes a diverse range of media and strategies, including film, photography, social interventions, installation, performance, video, writing and sound. In 2007, she won the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. In 2008, she won the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum.
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