Hop to hope – the exhibitions
Rory Pilgrim 16 December 2022–5 March 2023
Mounira Al Solh 17 March–11 June 2023
Iona Roisin 16 June–3 September 2023
Home alone collective 15 September–3 December 2023
Afra Eisma 15 December 2023–spring 2024
Opening times
- Tue–Sun 10–18
- Limited opening:
7 April 2023, closed
30 April 2023, open 10–15
1 May 2023, closed - Prices
The first forms a thoughtful and moving portrait of the institute established by Al Solh’s grandmother in Broummana, Lebanon, for people with special needs. The institute remains active to this day, despite the difficult economic conditions. The second is filmed on a walk with artist’s father. The work explores the artist’s links to her family, and to the history and landscape of Lebanon. The textiles that bring the two films together into an installation were created by Al Solh in collaboration with the residents of the institute in Broummana, as portrayed in the film.
Hop to Hope was originally made and exhibited as part of the commission series 'Hop to Hope' (after the installation by Solh) curated by Roos Gortzak and presented in September 2022 at the Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art in Middelburg, the Netherlands. The installation also provided the title for the WAMx exhibition series for 2023.
Mounira Al Solh’s (b. 1978, Lebanon) works feature combinations of videos, drawings, paintings, writings, performances and publications. Her art is ironic and self-reflective, socially and politically committed, but also escapist at the same time. In her art, Al Solh deals with feminist themes and patterns of microhistory, as well as with the wars in the Middle East, the solidarity between people in times of despair, and the conflicted position of women in the Arab world. Her works focus strongly on storytelling, microhistories, and biographies.
In 2008, Mounira Al Solh launched the NOA (Not Only Arabic) Magazine, which she edited together with Fadi El Tofeili and Mona Abu Rayya, and Jacques Aswad (NOA III). Al Solh studied painting at the University of Lebanon in Beirut between 1997 and 2001, and visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam between 2003 and 2006. Her works have been presented at various international group exhibitions, such as the Centre Carré D'art Nîmes in 2018, Documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel in 2017, and the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2015. She has also been featured in several solo exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Al Solh has received numerous awards, such as the Uriot Prize of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and the International Electronic Art Festival’s Videobrasil Award.
Mounira Al Solh: Hop to Hope
Duration 0:54:00 / 0:52:00
Image: Mounira Al Sohl, Hop to hope. Foto: Anda van Riet / Vleeshal.