Jack Persekian

Jack Persekian (born 1962) is a Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is the founder and Director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and Gallery Anadiel in Jerusalem.

Artist Biography

Jack Persekian (born 1962) is a Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is the founder and Director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and Gallery Anadiel in Jerusalem. He previously held the position of Director and Head Curator of the Palestinian Museum (2012–2015); Founding Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation (2009–2011); Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial (2007–2011); Head Curator of the Sharjah Biennial (2004–2007); Founder and Artistic Director of The Jerusalem Show (2007–present), and Qalandiya International (2012-14). Jack Persekian currently lives and works in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s landscape, as we know it today, is merely a surface layer, a slice in a long tumultuous history that has seen people and civilizations successively taking over from preceding ones. Over time, layers are obscured and sometimes obliterated to the point where one can find only a few traces or ruins, if any! Since the turn of the nineteenth century and the invention of photography, our relationship to how we see, comprehend, and communicate our understanding of history and time has dramatically changed.

Superimposing an additional layer, a photograph taken today of the same location, over that taken by the American Colony photographers some hundred years ago, shot from the same spot and the same angle, would move us between two distinctive times. It allows us to study the changes that occurred, compare the various times, align the physical transformations with the events that took place in the city and around the region during the last century, and deduce from these observations all the agendas at play, then, now, and still to come.

Jack Persekian (born 1962) is a Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is the founder and Director of Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art and Gallery Anadiel in Jerusalem. He previously held the position of Director and Head Curator of the Palestinian Museum (2012–2015); Founding Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation (2009–2011); Artistic Director of the Sharjah Biennial (2007–2011); Head Curator of the Sharjah Biennial (2004–2007); Founder and Artistic Director of The Jerusalem Show (2007–present), and Qalandiya International (2012-14). Jack Persekian currently lives and works in Jerusalem.