Everyday Forms of Resistance is a polymorphic project scheduled over several years, the result of the cooperation between the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw), the city of Ramallah, AIR Antwerpen and HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme.

Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art cordially invites to participate in an assembly which summarises residencies of Palestinian artists in Warsaw and residencies of artists from Poland, Belgium and Finland in Palestine.

In Palestine, „resistance” [مقاومة] is a word with military connotations. Resistance, however, also means small gestures and rituals: preparing meals, cultivating plants, playing host to guests or rebuilding torn-down houses. It means keeping-on existing within the everyday reality.

In early October, during an assembly at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre of Contemporary Art, artists, and representatives of Palestinian artistic and cultural institutions will meet up. They are going to talk about everyday life in occupied Palestine, about the role of artists, culture practitioners, and institutions in this politically challenging context, and also: about the notions of community and hospitality practices. Stories of everyday tribulations will be a starting point for reflections on the positive aspects of resistance.

It is the first public event scheduled as part of the long-term “Everyday Forms of Resistance” project, which allowed several European artists to spend a number of months in Palestine, and research its everyday reality. Simultaneously, Palestinian artists on residence in Poland have been given an opportunity to elaborate on certain threads present in their everyday practice: Mirna Bamieh applies food as an artistic medium, and Mohammad Saleh focuses on the field of agroecology. The assembly at U–jazdowski will be an opportunity for all the participants of the project to meet.

The assembly is going to last three days. It will be held inside the “Fermentation Station”, an installation by Mirna Bamieh, a Palestinian artist currently on residence at U–jazdowski. The event will include panel discussions, presentations, performances, and lectures open to the public. Architect and educator Sandi Hilal will speak on the permanent temporality experienced by Palestinian refugees, and about the power of hospitality. Khaldun Bshara, director of RIWAQ Ramallah, will describe spatial divisions Palestinians are faced with every day, and the strategies for restoring architectural heritage in a colonised state. Then, Salim Tamari, an illustrious sociologist of history from the Institute for Palestine Studies, will speak on the armed struggle of Palestinian peasants, and the ways it can be interpreted today. Polish artists, Joanna Rajkowska, Jaśmina Wójcik, and Karolina Grzywnowicz will then share their memories and impressions from their residencies in Ramallah.

Curator:
Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka

>> More information about the event

During spring and autumn of 2019 the following artists selected via open calls will have residencies Ramallah, Antwerp, Helsinki and Warsaw: Ahmed Alaqra (Palestine), Jumana Emil Abboud (Palestine), Mirna Bamieh (Palestine), Wim Catrysse (Belgium), Karolina Grzywnowicz (Poland), Timo Tuhkanen (Finland). In 2019, the project will produce a number of public events intertwined with the U–jazdowski’s discursive programme. In spring 2020, the endeavour will be topped off with a collective exhibition.