POETICAL ECONOMY AND THE QUESTION OF FUNDING | Yazan Khalili talk

This talk will go  through different examples and practices from Palestine that have been  actively trying to produce affirmative critique of the structures of  funding and the financialization of the cultural economy. What  structures can be built, what infrastructures can be used, how  collective work can be imagined, and how to work between theory and  practice.

Yazan Khalili is a visual artist, architect, and cultural activist. Khalili’s  photography is detailed, reflective and full of intent. Using  photography and the written word, Khalili unpacks historically  constructed landscapes. Borrowing from cinematic language, images become  frames where the spectator embodies the progression of time and  narratives. He weaves together parallel stories over the years, forming  both questions and paradoxes concerning scenery and the act of gazing,  all of which are refracted through the prism of intimate politics and  alienating poetics. In particular, he focuses on the effect of  geographical distance on our rendering of territory, and its ability to  heighten or arrest our political and sentimental attachments.

Born 1981. Works  in and out of Palestine, currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands,  where he is a PhD candidate at Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis  (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. He is an architect, visual artist, and  cultural producer. His works have been exhibited in several major  exhibitions, including among others: Documenta fifteen 2022, KW, Berlin  2020, MoCA Torento 2020, New Photography, MoMA 2018, Jerusalem Lives,  Palestinian Museum, 2017, Post-Peace, Kunstverein Stuttgart 2017,  Shanghai Biennial 2016, Sharjah Biennial 2013. In 2020 he co-founded  Radio Alhara, and in 2019 he co-founded The Question of Funding  collective.

Yazan Khalili  received a degree in architecture from Birzeit University in 2003 and in  2010 received his MA degree from the Centre for Research Architecture  at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, and in 2015 his MFA degree  at Sandberg Institute, Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. He was one of the  founding members of Zan Design Studio (2005-2010). He was the production  coordinator for Sharjah Biennials 9 & 10, and the technical  director of the inaugural exhibition of the Palestinian Museum  “Jerusalem Lives” (2017). He co-curated Young Artist of the Award (YAYA)  2012, The City | The Image symposium with Goethe Institute, Ramallah  2012, The Long Journey exhibition, the UNRWA Audio-Visual archive for  Palestine refugees, in 2013, and Debt exhibition at KSCC in 2018. In  2015, he co-organized Walter Benjamin in Palestine workshop and  symposium, and Marx: The Ultimate Contemporary in 2018.

He is the winner of Extract V young artist prize 2015. He  has been the artistic director of Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre  between 2015 until end of 2019, he was the Co-Chair of Photo discipline  at MFA program at Bard College, NY, till 2022, and guest artist in  residence at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam till 2022.