in collaboration with Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research
curated by Camila Palomino
The Space - ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai

Water like tears, flour like soil brings together artists with deep ties to Dar Jacir through experiences of residency, community, and exchange over the course of the last seven years. The title of the show is inspired by a traditional saying included in a performance by 2023 Dar Jacir artist in residence Shayma Hamad: "Pour the water like tears upon the flour until it becomes like grains of soil”; a saying shared by Palestinian women who organize grieving rituals of kneading, baking, and eating bread together after a loss, recalling the sacred transformation and healing between the body and the earth.

The participating artists unite in moments of creation and transformation guided by land, kinship, and storytelling. From Bethlehem to Gaza, to Ireland and to the territories known as Brazil, the artists foreground interconnected solidarities of cultural resistance and production. Collective narratives and storytelling unfold across time, lineage, and landscapes.

Over the last decade, Dar Jacir has been a site of hospitality and exchange for artists and researchers from Bethlehem, across Palestine, and worldwide—hosting generations of stories and imaginations amongst its terraces filled with sunflowers and olive, citrus, and almond trees. Since its inception, Dar Jacir’s mission has been to be a safe space for experimentation, risk-taking, to be vulnerable, to fail, and to gather collectively to foster a communal atmosphere for collective knowledge building and mutual learnings. The artists in the show have produced works from this special space and time and we are thrilled to see them come together in this exhibition.

Artists:
Adam Broomberg, Rafael Gonzalez, Ahmad Al’Aqra, Aline Baiana, Andrea
De Siena, Laura Esposito, Luca Rossi, Dina Mattar, Dina Mimi, Duncan Campbell, Samer Barbari, Emily Jacir, Mohammed Hadia, Hazem Harb, Mohammed Al Hawajri, Mohanad Smama, Dirar Kalash, Shayma Hamad, Stéphanie Janaina

ph:
Emily Jacir, In war we wear woven iron and in peace we pull silk threads, 2024, photo printed on plexi, lightbox, 90x230 cm