Man on a Horse

KWP production

Residencies

  • 17.09 > 18.09.2023
  • 26.08 > 28.08.2023
  • 14.08 > 20.08.2023

A sto­ry that jumps through time and across geo­grap­hies brings the artist and her grand­mo­ther in Palestine, together with two well-known European per­so­na­li­ties; Godefroid de Bouillon, known as the first king of Jerusalem and the ille­gi­ti­ma­te son of the famous Arabian poet Antara Bin-Shaddad, and the 16th-cen­tu­ry Flemish pain­ter Pieter Bruegel. Time col­lap­ses as we tra­vel back and forth across mil­len­nia — from Jerusalem, to Brussels, to London, and back to Jerusalem. Following the non-linear hakawa­ti struc­tu­re of epic sto­ry-tel­ling, per­so­na­li­ties and ima­ges are play­ful­ly dis­pla­ced and re-con­tex­tu­a­li­sed in a colo­ni­a­list his­to­ry. Using dif­fe­rent forms of col­la­ge in both the nar­ra­ti­ve and the ima­ges, Hijawi tact­ful­ly invi­tes us to look with her at how colo­ni­a­lism is dee­ply embed­ded in cano­ni­sed European artworks.


This lec­tu­re per­for­man­ce is part of a lar­ger body of work entit­led Chicken Scribbles and the Dove that Looks like a Frog’ which explo­res the aes­the­tics of repre­sen­ta­ti­on in art­works that allu­de to the poli­ti­cal his­to­ries of Palestine through various media.


On the 18th of sep­tem­ber, Samah will host a public defen­se of her PhD Chicken Scribbles and the Dove that Looks like a Frog’, which inclu­des the pre­sen­ta­ti­on of artis­tic works, inclu­ding Man on a Horse’. 

The public defen­se will take pla­ce at GC Elzenhof, from 16u-19u. 

Concept and per­for­man­ce: Samah Hijawi | Dramaturgy: Reem Shilleh | Technique: Gregor Van Mulders | Producer: Kunstenwerkplaats | Co-pro­du­cers: BOZAR, Chaire Mahmoud Darwich, Kunstenwerkplaats, Moussem, A. M. Qattan Foundation, KAAP | Coaches: Frederick Le Roy, Sana Ghobbeh, Einat Tuchman, and Lilia Mestre. With the sup­port of Vlaamse Gemeenschap, MMAG Foundation, Nadine and De School van Gaasbeek.