Qatar Museums (QM) has opened a major exhibition to coincide with the 60th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, bringing the visions of dozens of filmmakers and video artists from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia to the art world’s most prestigious stage.
The exhibition, titled Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices, on view at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti until November 24, presents a journey in moving images through contemporary experiences of community life and memory, transnational crossings and exile.
Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices is produced by Qatar Museums and co-organised by Doha Film Institute (DFI), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the future Art Mill Museum in collaboration with ACP Art Capital Partners and with support from Media City Qatar.
The exhibition is curated by Matthieu Orléan with the collaboration of Majid al-Remaihi and Virgile Alexandre, with exhibition design by architects and spatial designers Cookies (Federico Martelli and Clément Périssé). The advisory committee includes Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Zeina Arida and Catherine Grenier. Project management is by Minas Stratigos and Khalifa al- Thani is the exhibition manager.
The exhibition offers an all-encompassing journey through ten galleries, each dedicated to themes such as deserts (cradles of civilisation and places of rebirth), ruins (relics of culture), women’s voices, borders (demarcations between allowed and forbidden places) and exile, as experienced through selected films supported, co-financed or initiated by DFI and video works from the collections of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the future Art Mill Museum. The films and video works span genres including fiction, documentary, animation and memoir, often blending invented narrative with fact, modernity with tradition and spirituality with postcolonial sensibilities.
Included are excerpts from works by more than 40 artists including Faouzi Bensaidi (Morocco), Jessica Beshir (Ethiopia), Ali Cherri (Lebanon), Tala Hadid (Morroco), Joana Hadjithomas (Lebanon), Khalil Joreige (Lebanon), Soudade Kaadan (Syria), Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (Lesotho), Asmae El Moudir (Morocco), Amal al-Muftah (Qatar), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Larissa Sansour (Palestine), Abderrhamane Sissako (Mauritania), Elia Suleiman (Palestine), Ramata-Toulaye Sy (Senegal), Tariq Teguia (Algeria), Shaima al-Tamini (Yemen) and makers from more than a dozen other countries, as well as video works by artists Wael Shawky, Lida Abdul, Hassan Khan and Sophia Al Maria.
HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Chairperson of QM and DFI, said: “Opening at the same time as the Venice Art Biennale and continuing throughout the presentation of the Venice Film Festival, Your Ghosts Are Mine will open the eyes of multitudes of international viewers to the ideas, the feelings, and above all the artistic visions of today’s filmmakers from the Arab world and neighbouring regions. By presenting this exhibition, Qatar Museums advances its key mission of encouraging understanding across borders through cultural exchange, while Doha Film Institute fulfills its mandate to nurture and promote the rising talents of our region.”
Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, CEO, DFI, said: “For nearly 15 years, the Institute has worked to correct the misrepresentation of Arab culture, stories and aesthetics by nurturing important new voices in cinema. We are proud to have supported over 800 diverse projects from 74 countries, underlining Qatar’s commitment to empower a new generation of storytellers and bring balance to the global film landscape.”
The exhibition is one of several QM initiatives coinciding with the Venice Biennale. Mathaf is lending several works by major Arab modern artists to be exhibited in Foreigners Everywhere, the main exhibition of the 60th International Art Exhibition curated by Adriano Pedrosa. QM is also a supporter of the Nigeria Pavilion at the Biennale and the founding sponsor of the Art for Tomorrow conference, which takes place in Venice from June 5 to 7. Your Ghosts Are Mine, Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices remains on view during the Venice International Film Festival, opening August 28.
