Noor Abed is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. Her practice examines notions of choreography and the imaginary relationship of individuals, creating situations where social possibilities are both rehearsed and performed. Abed attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in Νew York in 2015-16, and the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut in 2016-17. She received her BA from the International Academy of Arts in Palestine and a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. She was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine (2014) and a fellow in documenta (13)’s “Department of Maybe Educatiοn and Public Programs” in Kassel, Germany. A finalist and a third prize-winner in the 2014 Young Artist Award, she was awarded the March Project residency and commission from Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE) in 2016. Abed was awarded residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (France) in 2018, the U-jazdowski Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (Poland) in 2020, and Raw Material Company in Dakar (Senegal) in 2019, among others. In 2020, she co-founded, with Lara Khaldi, the “School of Intrusions,” an independent educational platform in Ramallah, Palestine. Abed is currently exploring the critical stance of ‘folklore’ as a source of knowledge, and it’s possible connection to alternative social and representational models in Palestine.
project in process
Our songs were ready for all wars to come
The project explores the critical stance of ‘folklore’ as a source of knowledge, and its possible connection to alternative social and representational models in Palestine. Viewing folklore as born from land and specific sites, how can it become a common tool for people to overturn the characteristics of dominant discourses, regain their history, and rewrite reality as they know it?
Explored through artistic means, situated stories are archived and represented, creating a context -both rehearsed and performed- that explores the capacity of social formation, and the possibility of recalling memories that are capable of decentralizing images of fixity; memories that are liberated from monuments.