Sit-In by Khaled Hourani

“Individuals dissolve within the crowds, to form a human mass. In those moments, individuality is overridden by unity and agency that is formed in an act of desperation before each individual returns back to his/her isolation and fate. This time, I paint, illustrate and color these crowds in an attempt to capture the thread that makes the connection between all of this on one hand and life and its mechanics on the other. I am inspired by these protests which I take photos for or take part in, and I start questioning what lies between the now and the future, between the individual and the group? Do I want to freeze this moment or that? Do I want to make it eternal by echoing it on canvas? I don’t know as I am inclined to doubt. But I can say that these paintings pause an existential question and reflect the limits of the self.”

Khaled Hourani is a prominent Palestinian artist, curator and writer. He was the Artistic Director of the International Academy of Art Palestine from 2007 – 2010, and its General Director from 2010 to 2013. He also worked as General Director of the Fine Arts Department in the Palestinian Ministry of Culture (2004 – 2006). A painter and a conceptual artist, in 2013, he was awarded the Leonore Annenberg Prize, Creative Time for Art and Social Change in New York City. In 2014, he organized his first retrospective at the CCA in Glasgow and Gallery One in Ramallah. Most recently, another retrospective showcased at Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan in 2017.