Palestinian artists working within the resistance movements of the 1980’s often depicted utopian landscapes and idealized peasant village life in their work. Taking an iconic image from that era as its starting point, this performance juxtaposes such imagery with historical narratives and popular songs, evoking nostalgia for when there was hope of a sovereign Arab world. Through humour, these elements come together in an audio-visual representation that reveals the artist’s personal reading of the past, while exploring the failures of political and social conditions that shape the contemporary moment.

Samah Hijawi is an artist, researcher and curator working in performance and collages practices in memory and history. Since 2005 she collaborated in different capacities with Ola El-Khalidi and Diala Khasawneh, on the programming and management of Makan art space, an independent space dedicated to the facilitation and production of arts and culture in Amman. Since 2012 she curates the on-going curatorial platform the river has two banks with Shuruq Harb and Toleen Touq, a program facilitating presentations that address the growing distance between practitioners in Jordan and Palestine. Her works have been shown at; Aleppo – Brussels, Bureau Europa- Maastricht, MoMa and Apex Art – New York; Darat al Funun and Al Balad Theater – Amman; Beirut Art Center – Beirut; Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Birzeit University Museum – Ramallah; Luisiana Museum – Copenhagen; and The Onasis Center – Athens.