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Emily Jacir

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Emily Jacir
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Bethlehem
EducationUniversity of Dallas, Memphis College of Art

Emily Jacir (Arabic: أملي جاسر; born 1970) is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker.

Biography

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Emily Jacir is a multidisciplinary artist whose primary interest lies in transformation, resistance and silenced historical narratives. Jacir grew up in Saudi Arabia and attended high school in Italy. She graduated with a degree in art from the University of Dallas, Memphis College of Art. She divides her time between New York and Ramallah.[1][2]

Work and career

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Jacir works in a variety of media including film, photography, installation, performance, video, writing and sound. She draws on the artistic medium of concept art and social intervention as a framework for her pieces, in which she focuses on themes of displacement, exile, and resistance, primarily within the context of Palestinian occupation.[3]

She has exhibited throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East since 1994, holding solo exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, Ramallah, Beirut,[4] London and Linz.

Active in the building of Ramallah's art scene since 1999, Jacir has worked with the A. M. Qattan Foundation, Al Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Sakakini Cultural Center. She has been involved in projects and events such as Birzeit's Virtual Art Gallery. She also founded and curated the first International Video Festival in Ramallah in 2002.[5] She curated a selection of shorts, Palestinian Revolution Cinema (1968 – 1982), which went on tour in 2007.[6] Between 2000 - 2002 she curated several Arab Film programs in NYC with Alwan for the Arts including the first Palestinian Film Festival in 2002. She has worked as a full-time professor at the International Academy of Art Palestine since it opened in 2006 and served on its Academic Board from 2006 through 2012. Jacir led the first year of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Program in Beirut (2011-2012) and created the curriculum and programming after serving on the founding year of the Curricular Committee from 2010 to 2011. Jacir is the founder and founding director of Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research in her family home in Bethlehem, which serves as both a community centre and a contemporary art space.[7][8]

In February 2023, Jacir collaborated with artist Baha Hilo, a native Palestinian and Sociology graduate of Birzeit University, to create his project ‘Preserve’ which focuses on the preservation and repair of the olive terraces at Dar Jacir, an arts and education center in Bethlehem. The project was supported by the Center for Human Rights and the Arts.[9][10]

Awards and Honors

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  • On 17 October 2007 Jacir won the 'Leone d'Oro a un artista under 40' - (Golden Lion for artists under 40), - at the 52nd Venice Biennale for "a practice that takes as its subject exile in general and the Palestinian issue in particular. Without recourse to exoticism, the work on display in the central Pavilion at the Giardini establishes and expands a crossover between cinema, archival documentation, narrative and sound".[11][12][13][14]
  • Jacir was the recipient of the 2007 Prince Claus Award, an annual prize from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, The Hague, which described Jacir as "an exceptionally talented artist whose works seriously engage the implications of conflict."[15]
  • Jacir was the winner of the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Jury noted that she won the award for her "rigorous conceptual practice—comprising photography, video, performance, and installation-based work—bears witness to a culture torn by war and displacement. As a member of the Palestinian diaspora, she comments on issues of mobility (or the lack thereof), border crises, and historical amnesia through projects that unearth individual narratives and collective experiences."[16][17]
  • Jacir was the Visual Arts winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.[18]
  • In 2015 she was awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Arts, The American Academy in Rome. American Academy in Rome, Rome.[19]
  • In 2018 Jacir won the "Curator of the Young Artist of the Year" award from the A.M. Qattan Foundation.[20]
  • In 2019 She gave the Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton University Emily Jacir: "Where We Come From" [21]
  • In 2023 she received an American Academy Arts and Letters Award in Art from Arts and Letters Awards in Art, New York.[22]
  • In 2023 Jacir was awarded an honorary doctorate in art and design by the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.[23]
  • In 2024 she was awarded the Minimum Prize from Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy.[24]

Recent juries

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  • 2024 Herb Alpert Award Panelist in the Visual Arts, USA [25]
  • 2022 Jury Platform Commissions, EVA International, Ireland.[26]
  • 2021 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
  • 2021 Herb Alpert Award Panelist in the Visual Arts, USA [27]
  • 2020 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
  • 2016 through 2020 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency Jury, Italy
  • 2019 German Competition 35th International Jury Kurzfilm Hamburg [28]
  • 2019 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
  • 2017 Sunbird Award Competition for Short Narrative Films, Days of Cinema Festival, Ramallah [29]
  • 2017 Herb Alpert Award Panelist in the Visual Arts, USA [30]
  • 2014 Juror for Visions du Reel Festival International de Cinema, Nyon [31]
  • 2013 International Jury, Lampedusa InFestival V Edition, Film festival, Lampedusa, Italy
  • 2012 Cda-Projects Grant for Artistic Research and Production, Istanbul, Turkey[32]
  • 2012 Berlinale Shorts Film Jury, Germany[33]
  • 2012 CinemaXXI Jury, Rome Film Festival, Italy[34]
  • 2010 A.M. Qattan Young Artist Award Juror, Ramallah [35]

Major works

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Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages Destroyed, Depopulated, and Occupied by Israel in 1948 (2001)

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Developed during her residency at P.S.1's National Studio Program, Jacir opened her studio to Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Egyptians, Syrians, Yemenis, Spaniards and others to embroider a refugee tent with the names of Palestinian villages impacted by Israeli expansion.[36]

"Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages is mobile and vulnerable—resisting any false appeals to closure. It is not a didactic monument, but a sensitive, painful testament to a desperate tragedy that needs to be addressed and aches to be mourned."[37]

Where We Come From (2001-2003)

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Jacir, holder of an American passport, asked more than 30 Palestinians living both abroad and within the occupied territories: “If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” She collected responses and carried out tasks in an extended performance of wish-fulfilment by proxy, using her American passport to travel between territories, a privilege most Palestinians do not hold.[3] Some of the tasks included playing football, eating local foods, paying bills, visiting a grave, meeting relatives or loved ones, etc. The details of the series's display were deliberate: within a simple, black frame, parallel text in Arabic and English listed the exact request, described the requestor's current location and situation in regards to movement, their name, and finally, notes on the completion of the task. Adjacent to this frame were the accompanying photographs of the artist carrying out the task, unframed, and printed larger than the text panels.

This curatorial decision is explained through the idea that "viewers face a project that is first of all divided between text panels and photographs. But how to get from one to the other? The visual transition from language to image seems simple enough. A mere shift of the eyes will do... Yet it is just this translation, written out in clear language and then realized photographically, that for many is insurmountable... [it] represents an unbridgeable chasm, an impossibility on which a complex of desire is built."[38]

The documented result was shown in New York[39] to great critical acclaim; "Where We Come From is [Jacir's] best so far. An art of cool Conceptual surfaces and ardent, intimate gestures, intensely political and beyond polemic, it adds up to one of the most moving gallery exhibitions I've encountered this season."[40][41] Other reactions expressed "that her efforts resonated with the aspects of desire, fear and restricted movement."[42] Where We come From was also positively reviewed by Edward Said.[43]

The work was acquired by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,[44] which added an extra text to Jacirs work.[45]

Crossing Surda (2003)

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"“Crossing Surda” (a record of going to and from work), exists because an Israeli soldier threatened me and put an M-16 into my temple. [Ms. Jacir says she was filming her feet with a video camera at a checkpoint that day.] If I had not had this direct threatening experience this piece would not exist."[46][41]

Accumulations (2005)

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"Ms. Jacir's deft extrapolation of the issues of identity from the specifics of experience, like her renewal and extension of what might be called classic Conceptual Art, is enormously impressive."[47]

Material for a film (2005-ongoing)

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"In Material for a Film (2005–ongoing) the displacement is total, as Jacir’s own identity is substituted for that of her subject, Wael Zuaiter, a Palestinian intellectual living in Rome who was assassinated in 1972 by Israeli agents, having been mistakenly identified as one of those responsible for the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The installation gathers together photographs, books, music, letters, interviews, telegrams, copies of the Italian magazine Rivoluzione Palestinese to which Zuaiter contributed, even a clip from a Pink Panther film in which he had a small part, to flesh out a life no longer there."[44]

"Jacir is a quiet and mercurial art-world figure, less than a decade deep into her career, and her Boss show rejects the obvious opportunity presented for leverage, debutante-style, as a headliner on the New York art stage and in the media that starts here. In fact, the only character in sharp focus for this exhibition is Wael Zuaiter, a Palestinian intellectual killed by Israeli secret service agents following the murder of eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer by the militant group Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympics."[48]

Howard Halle criticized the pieces in an article in Time Out New York, writing, "That such a crude, self-indulgent exercise has been given one of contemporary art’s most prestigious awards is unfortunate, though not, sadly, entirely unexpected."[49] Another critique by Ken Johnson of The New York Times said that, "If the ultimate point is to arouse humane concern for Palestinians in general, Ms. Jacir's work falls short."[50]

  • Emily Jacir: "Material for a film": Retracing Wael Zuaiter (Part 1),[51] installation in the 2007 La Biennale di Venezia
  • Emily Jacir: "Material for a film": A performance (Part 2),[52] 16 July 2007, The Electronic Intifada
    • Najwan Darwis: Emily Jacir's Material for a Film: Ongoing homage and artistic revenge for Wa’el Zuaiter[53]

Retracing bus no. 23 on the historic Jerusalem-Hebron Road (2006)

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  • Emily Jacir, Photostory: Retracing bus no. 23 on the historic Jerusalem-Hebron Road, 15 December 2006, The Electronic Intifada[54]

stazione (2009)

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In 2009, Jacir participated in the Venice Biennale in the Palestinian Pavilion. She created a site-specific public project to take place in Venice during the Biennale. The Venice City Authorities shut down Jacir's project and refused to allow it to take place.

"Significant by its absence at the Venice Biennale was Emily Jacir's contribution to the official off-site exhibition, 'Palestine c/o Venice'. Jacir's artwork, Stazione, would have seen all of the piers for the Route 1 water bus (the vaporetto that runs up and down the Grand Canal) display the stop location names in Arabic as well as the usual Italian. Mockups were made, the Biennale approved, the council approved and the vaporetto company that runs Route 1 approved. Then suddenly it didn't. Apparently the vaporetto company stopped the project, and all the artist could find out, second-hand, was that they had 'received pressure from an outside source to shut it down for political reasons'."[55]

"Emily Jacir’s stazione (2008 - 2009) is an unrealised intervention on the number 1 vaporetto (water bus) line, a main transport route along the Grand Canal beginning at Lido winding its way to Piazzale Roma, ferrying audiences from one Biennale exhibition to another, by inserting Arabic text supplementing the existing Italian names at vaporetti stops and thus making the route bilingual. In the artist’s explanation, the work references the numerous Arab influences and exchanges in the history of Venice, its architecture, manufacturing, shipping, and of course in the process of these activities, language - that Arabic words too have filtered into the Venetian dialect - ‘divan’, ‘damasco’, ‘gabella’, amongst others."[56]

Museums

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Museums where her work has been shown:

The main gallery in the US that shows her work is Alexander and Bonin in NYC (212.367.7474)

Biennales

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International biennales which have featured her work:

Articles (partial list)

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Bibliography

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  • "Emily Jacir" (Document). Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg. 2008.
  • "Emily Jacir" (Document). O.K. Books. 2003.
  • Jacir, Emily (2008). A. Laidi-Hanieh (ed.). Some things I probably should not say and some things I should have said (fragments of a diary). Cercle d’Art, Paris.

References

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  1. ^ "Emily Jacir". Artspace. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  2. ^ "Emily Jacir". Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Archived from the original on 19 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b Luckett, Helen (2019). "Emily Jacir". In Morrill, Rebecca; Wright, Karen; Elderton, Louisa (eds.). Great Women Artists. Phaidon Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-0714878775. OCLC 1099690505.
  4. ^ "affiliations:Emily Jacir". Beirut Art Center. January 2010. Archived from the original on 24 October 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  5. ^ "About". 2002 Palestine International Video Festival. 29 August 2007. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013.
  6. ^ Murphy, Maureen Clare (16 February 2007). "Palestinian Revolution Cinema Comes to NYC". The Electronic Intifada. Archived from the original on 22 May 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  7. ^ "About Us". Dar Jacir. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  8. ^ Neuendorf, Henri (23 May 2017). "Palestinian Artist Emily Jacir Plans to Transform Her Family Home Into a West Bank Art Center". ArtNet. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  9. ^ ""Common Ground" Festival Opens". Center for Human Rights and the Arts. 12 October 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  10. ^ "Baha Hilo: The Olives of Palestine". Open Society University Network. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  11. ^ "Emily Jacir - Pietrapertosa". Artribune (in Italian). 4 August 2021. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  12. ^ Farhat, Maymanah (15 December 2008). "Palestinian artist Emily Jacir awarded top prize". The Electronic Intifada. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  13. ^ "La Biennale di Venezia Golden Lions in 2007". Archived from the original on 8 November 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  14. ^ "Leone d'oro ~ Golden Lion". Amoula il Majnoona. 20 October 2007. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018.
  15. ^ "2007 Prince Claus Award, Emily Jacir, Palestine". Prince Claus Fund. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  16. ^ "Emily Jacir Wins 2008 Hugo Boss Prize". Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. 14 November 2008. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  17. ^ "Emily Jacir Named Winner of Seventh Biennial Hugo Boss Prize". Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. 14 November 2008. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  18. ^ "Emily Jacir 2011". The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts. 23 March 2013. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Emily Jacir – Archives, Movement, and Translation". American Academy in Rome. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  20. ^ "Emily Jacir - Biography. Young Artist of the Year Award 2018". A.M. Qattan Foundation. Universes in Universe. 2018. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  21. ^ "The Annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture - Department of English". english.princeton.edu. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  22. ^ "2023 Art Award Winners". American Academy of Arts and letters. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  23. ^ "National College of Art and Design awards inaugural Honorary Doctorate to internationally renowned artist Emily Jacir". National College of Art and Design. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  24. ^ "2023 ARTE AL CENTRO 2024: IL MINIMUM PRIZE A EMILY JACIR". Cittadellarte. 1 December 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  25. ^ "2024 Panelists Archive". CDA Projects Grants. 2024. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  26. ^ "2022 EVA International". Platform Commissions. 2022. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  27. ^ "2021 Panelists Archive". Herb Alpert Awards. 2021. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  28. ^ "2019 JURY GERMAN COMPETITION". Kurzfilm Hamburg. 2019. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  29. ^ "2017 Panelists Archive". Days of Cinema. 2017. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  30. ^ "2017 Panelists Archive". Herb Alpert Awards. 2017. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  31. ^ "2014 JURY". Visions du Reel. 2014. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  32. ^ "2012 Grant - Recipient of Cda-Projects Grant for Artistic Research and Production 2012". CDA Projects Grants. 2012. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  33. ^ "Press Photos 2012 - Juries". Berlinale. 2012. Archived from the original on 20 August 2019.
  34. ^ "Fond. Cinema Roma - Emily Jacir - Jury | CinemaXXI". International Rome Film Festival. 20 May 2013. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013.
  35. ^ "2010 YAYA". YAYA. 2017. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
  36. ^ Emily Jacir: belongings | Works: 1998-2003. Austria: O.K Books 0/04. 2004. pp. 22–25. ISBN 3-85256-265-1.
  37. ^ Gelardin, Chiara. "Memories in exile". Columbia University. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008.
  38. ^ Demos, T. J. (2003). "Desire in Diaspora: Emily Jacir". Art Journal. 62 (4): 69–78. doi:10.2307/3558490. JSTOR 3558490.
  39. ^ "Emily Jacir: Where We Come From". Debs & Co. 2003. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  40. ^ Cotter, Holland (9 May 2003). "Art in Review; Emily Jacir". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  41. ^ a b Vanderbilt, Tom (February 2004). "Openings: Emily Jacir". Artforum. 42 (6): 140–141. ISSN 1086-7058. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  42. ^ "Emily Jacir's Where we come from & The power of her passport". Public Delivery. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  43. ^ Said, Edward W. (2003). "Emily Jacir". Grand Street (72): 106. doi:10.2307/25008698. ISSN 0734-5496. JSTOR 25008698.
  44. ^ a b Wilson Goldie, Kaelen (9 July 2008). "Her dark materials: The artist Emily Jacir has produced the defining work of her career by reconstructing the life and death of an assassinated poet". The National. Archived from the original on 20 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  45. ^ Green, Tyler (22 January 2009). "SFMOMA installed unusual wall-text in Emily Jacir gallery". Modern Art Notes. Modern Arts Journal. Archived from the original on 26 January 2009.
  46. ^ Wise, Michael Z. (30 January 2009). "Border Crossings Between Art and Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  47. ^ Smith, Roberta (25 March 2005). "Art in Review; Emily Jacir -- 'Accumulations'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  48. ^ "Bones' Beat: Emily Jacir at the Guggenheim". The Village Voice. 19 March 2009. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012.
  49. ^ Halle, Howard (5 March 2009). "The Hugo Boss Prize 2008: Emily Jacir". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
  50. ^ Johnson, Ken (13 February 2009). "Material for a Palestinian's Life and Death". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
  51. ^ Jacir, Emily (16 July 2007). ""Material for a film": Retracing Wael Zuaiter (Part 1)". Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  52. ^ Jacir, Emily (16 July 2007). ""Material for a film": A performance (Part 2)". Retrieved 5 June 2024.
  53. ^ Darwish, Najwan (January 2008). "Emily Jacir's Material for a Film: Ongoing homage and artistic revenge for Wa'el Zuaiter". This Week in Palestine. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  54. ^ Jacia, Emily (15 December 2006). "Photostory: Retracing bus no. 23 on the historic Jerusalem-Hebron Road". The Electronic Intifada. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  55. ^ "FindArticles.com - CBSi". findarticles.com.
  56. ^ "This World (at the Venice Biennale)". Arteri. 20 July 2009. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  57. ^ "Emily Jacir - Where We Come From". Visual Art - Samer. May 2004. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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