Marwa Arsanios
Marwa Arsanios was born in Washington DC, USA in 1978
She currently lives and works between Berlin and Beirut
Marwa Arsanios is an artist, filmmaker and researcher whose work can take the form of installation, performance and moving image. She reconsiders the political development of the second half of the twentieth century from a contemporary perspective, focusing on gender relations, collectivism, urbanism and industrialization. Her research work includes many disciplines and is deployed in numerous collaborative projects.
Several solo exhibitions have been dedicated to her work: Mosaïc Rooms, London (2022); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Center (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2016); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015); and Art in General, New York (2015).
Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions including: Documenta 15, Kassel (2022); 5th Mardin Bienali (2022); 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021); 11th Berlin Biennale (2020); The Renaissance, Chicago (2020); 2nd Lahore Biennale (2020); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); 1st Sharjah Architecture Triennial (2019); SF Moma, San Francisco (2019); 1st Warsaw Biennial (2019); 14th Sharjah Biennale (2019); Nottingham Contemporary (2017); Maxxi Museum, Rome (2017); Sursock Museum, Beirut (2016); Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2016); Thessaloniki Biennial (2015); Home Works Forum, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2010, 2013, 2015); New Museum, New York (2014); 55th Venice Biennial (2013); M HKA, Antwerp (2013), In Other Words, nGbK, Berlin (2012); or the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011).
Her films have been screened at Cinéma du Réel, Paris (2021); Rotterdam Film Festival (2021); EMAF, Osnabrück (2021); Film Fest, Hamburg (2020); State of Concept, Athens (2020); FID Marseille (2019); tiff, Toronto (2019); RIDM, Montreal (2019); Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (2019); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2011, 2017); Berlin International Film Festival (2010, 2015); and e-flux storefront, New York (2009).
She received the Georges de Beauregard International Prize at FID Marseille (2019), the Special Prize of the Pinchuk Future Generation Art Prize (2012), and was nominated for the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize (2017) and the Han Nefkens Foundation Award (2014). She was awarded the Akademie Schloss Solitude scholarship in Stuttgart in 2014 and the Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo Arts and Space in 2010. She is a co-founder of the 98weeks Research Project.
Who is Afraid of Ideology? Part IV, 2021 - Exhibition view, Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany 2022
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? Part IV, 2021 - HD Video - Video Still
Marwa Arsanios Reverse shot - Exhibition view, Mosaic Rooms, London, 2022
Marwa Arsanios Reverse shot - Exhibition view, Mosaic Rooms, London, 2022
Who Is Afraid of Ideology? Part 1, 2017 - Exhibition view, Kunsthalle Munster, 2022 ©LWL:Hanna Neander
Who is afraid of ideology? Part III - Micro Resistencias, 2020 - Exhibition view, La Loge Brussels, 2021
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? Part III - Micro Resistencias, 2020 - Installation View, 11th Berlin Biennial, KW Institute for Contemporary Art ©photo : Silke Briel
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? 2017-2019 - Exhibition View, SF MOMA, 2019 ©Joanna Arnold
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? Part I, 2019 - HD Video - Video Still
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? Part II, 2019 - Exhibition view, 14th Sharjah Biennial, 2019
Who is Afraid of Ideology ? Part IV, 2022 - HD Video - Video Still
Untitled [Tapestry], 2019 - Exhibition View, SF MoMA, 2019 ©Joanna Arnold
Who is Afraid of Ideology ?, 2017-2019 & Untitled [Tapestry], 2020 - Exhibition View, mor charpentier, Paris, 2020
Exhibition view, Marwa Arsanios: A Letter Inside A Letter, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 2021
Matter of Alliances - Exhibition view, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, 2023
Matter of Alliances - Exhibition view, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, 2023
Falling is not collapsing, Falling is extending, 2016-2018 - Exhibition View, Beirut Art Center, 2017
Falling is not collapsing, Falling is extending, 2016 - Exhibition View, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2016
Falling is not collapsing, Falling is extending, 2016 - Digital Vidéo
Resilient Weeds, 2016 - Exhibition View, MAXXI, Roma, 2017 © Luis do Rosario
Resilient Weeds, 2016 - Exhibition view, Garage Rotterdam 2021
Models of landfills, land extensions and garbage mountains, 2016 - Plaster, micro cement, abs plastic
After Doxiadis, a proposal for a new social housing project, 2013 - Exhibition View, Beirut Art Center, 2014
After Doxiadis, A proposal for a new social housing project, 2013 - Installation with concrete models of housing, printed documents
After Doxiadis, A proposal for a new social housing project, 2013 - Details of the printed documents from Doxiadis' 1958 plan
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Exhibition View, Istanbul Biennial, 2011 © Mahmut Ceylan
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Detail - Photograph
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Detail of the installation - Exhibition View, Halle 14, Liepzig, 2016
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Exhibition View, Istanbul Biennial, 2011 © Mahmut Ceylan
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Detail - Photograph
All About Acapulco, 2010-2011 - Exhibition View, Istanbul Biennial, 2011 © Mahmut Ceylan
Carlton Hotel Project, 2008 - Installation with an architectural model and three pieces of clothes made of curtain fabric - Exhibition View 12th Gwangju Biennale, 2018
Carlton Hotel Project, 2008 - Detail of the architectural model
Carlton Hotel Project, 2008 - Detail of the architectural model
I've Heard Storie, 2008 - Digital video animation
Al Hilal Project : Olga’s Notes, All those Restless Bodies 2014 - Exhibition View, Art in General, New York, 2015
Al Hilal Project : Olga’s Notes, All those Restless Bodies 2014 - Digital Video
Al Hilal Project : Olga’s Notes, The Library, 2013 – Exhibition View, Belvedere Vienna, 2014
Al Hilal Project : Have You Ever Killed a Bear or Becoming Jamila, 2014 - Digital video - Exhibition View, The Reconnaissance Society, Chicago, 2020
Al Hilal Project : Words as silence, language as rhymes, 2012-2013 – View of the Performance, 54th Venice Biennial 2013
Al Hilal Project : Learning to dance, 2015 - View of the Performance, Palais de la Découverte, 2019 ©Marc Domage
A Platform for Reading Feminist Texts, 2015 - View of the Performance, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Germany, 2015
Karl and Olga, A Brief Encounter, 2012 - View of the Performance, with the participation of Lawrence Abu Hamdan
98 Thesis for translation, Part II- Learning from Kanda, 2019 - Interactive artist book
98 Thesis for translation, Part II- Learning from Kanda, 2019 - Interactive artist book