Ayman Alazraq & Liam Alzafari
Archival photos from 1970s Palestinian resistance training camps (48
photograhs) and the First Intifada (24 photographs), projections, ta
Photographs courtesy of Palestinakomiteen, Ebba Wergeland.
Property of the artists.
Vertical Laundry: Stories of Self-Determination is a multimedia installation
created by the artist Ayman Alazraq and scenographer Liam Alzafari. The
installation consists of, among other things, countless archival images
hanging from the ceiling on thin threads, and projected over the entire piece
is a customized video with text. The installation embodies the concept of
“Intifada”, derived from the root “n-fad” (نفض(, meaning “to shake off” at its
core. Much like shaking dust from a garment, this work visualizes the effort to
rid the land of colonial impositions that cling but never settle deeply.
Does the land of dreams have room for what remains in us and for us of
dreams? And can a dream dream even more? Of course, yes! Within us
is more than land, and on the land, more than exile. Within us is the one
descending from his image, which remains hanging on the wall and the coffin.
(Mahmoud Darwish)
The exhibition is curated by members of PRAKSIS Teen Advisory Board
– a group of youth 17 to 23 – as a part of the three year long collaborative
programme Young Curators Mentorship. Young Curators Mentorship is a
collaboration between Nitja Centre for Contemporary Art and PRAKSIS.
All Eyes On and its accompanying outreach program provide a platform for
new young voices in the art field. The group of ten young people has worked
with three regular mentors from Nitja and two from PRAKSIS. Throughout
2024, they have participated in workshops, spoken with dozens of artists,
visited exhibitions, and learned more about video art. The youth have
organized and planned the exhibition from start to finish: from choosing
the theme to selecting the participating artists and how the exhibition
will be presented.
The collaboration project is supported by Erasmus+ Ungdom
programme of the European Union, Sparebankstiftelsen DNB,
and Akershus county municipality.
Nitja
Mentor curation and project manager: Jessica Williams
Mentor mediation: Camilla von Køppen
Mentor installation: Tor Arne Samuelsen
PRAKSIS
Project managers: Marit Silsand and Kristian Schrøder
Technical team
Sindre Hustveit, Ane Kvåle, Åsmund Solberg, Saman Kamyab
Liam Alzafari (b. 1991, Syria) is a Palestinian Syrian scenographer based in
Norway. At the core of his practice is an exploration of set design and space.
Alzafari has participated in exhibtions in the Levant (a historical geographic
area that includes Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Isreal, Jordan, parts of Iraq
and Turkey) until 2015, in addition to Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, France,
Catalonia, and the Czech Republic. Alzafari holds an MA in scenography from
the Norwegian Theatre Academy, Fredrikstad, and a BA in set design from the
Higher Institute of Theatrical Arts, Damascus.
