Aesthetics of the political #3

Aesthetics of the political: Institutional Critique #3

A proposition of Samah Hijawi

“Aesthetics of the Political” is an on-going project by Samah Hijawi that reflects on the strategies that artists use to transform political and critical ideas into aesthetic form in their work. Realised in different forms of encounter, the project focuses on creating intimate settings for in-depth conversations about where the political gesture and criticality are embedded in artistic practices that reflect on hegemonic power structures in our lives today.

Samah Hijawi in conversation with Yazan Khalili (Palestine /The Netherlands)

In this episode Samah Hijawi is in conversation with Yazan Khalili about how he translates his position into an active critique of power in both his artistic and cultural work. The conversation takes I, The Artwork (2016) as a starting point for mapping out the terrain of critique he engages with, and moves on to explore The total Work of An Institution that framed his previous directorship of the Khalil Sakakini Culture Centre in Ramallah (2015-2019). Yazan reflects on how these experiences affect the projects he works on today including Radio Al Hara, and the idea of ‘non-artwork artist gift shop’ with the participants at the Rijksakademie in The Netherlands.