QM exhibition in Venice to reveal new voices in film, video from the Arab world, Global South

Qatar Museums (QM) has announced plans for a major exhibition to coincide with the 60th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, bringing the visions of dozens of filmmakers and video artists from the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia to the art world’s most prestigious stage.

The exhibition, titled ‘Your ghosts are mine: Expanded Cinemas, Amplified Voices,’ on view at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti from April 19 to November 24, will present a journey in moving images through contemporary experiences of community life and memory, transnational crossings and exile.

The exhibition is produced by QM and co-organised by Doha Film Institute (DFI), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the future Art Mill Museum in collaboration with ACP Art Capital Partners.

The exhibition is curated by Matthieu Orléan with the collaboration of Majid al-Remaihi and Virgile Alexandre, with exhibition design by architects and spatial designers Cookies (Federico Martelli and Clément Périssé). The advisory committee includes DFI CEO Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Zeina Arida and Catherine Grenier. Project management is by Minas Stratigos and Khalifa al-Thani is the exhibition manager.

The exhibition will offer an all-encompassing journey through 10 galleries, each dedicated to themes such as deserts (cradles of civilisation and places of rebirth), ruins (relics of culture), women’s voices, borders (demarcations between allowed and forbidden places) and exile, as experienced through selected films supported, co-financed or initiated by DFI and video works from the collections of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art and the future Art Mill Museum.

The films and video works span genres including fiction, documentary, animation and memoir, often blending invented narrative with fact, modernity with tradition and spirituality with postcolonial sensibilities.

Included will be excerpts from works by more than 40 filmmakers from Algeria (Hassen Ferhani, Tariq Teguia), Egypt (Morad Mostafa, Sameh Alaa), Ethiopia (Jessica Beshir), Iran (Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari, Ali Asgari), Lebanon (Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Ali Cherri), Lesotho (Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese), Morocco (Faouzi Bensaïdi, Randa Maroufi, Asmae El Moudir), Palestine (Elia Suleiman, Raed Andoni, Larissa Sansour, Abdallah al-Khatib), Qatar (Hamida Issa, Amal al-Muftah, Majid al-Remaihi, AJ al-Thani, Rawda al-Thani), Sudan (Suzannah Mirghani), Mauritania (Abderrhamane Sissako), Syria (Yasser Kassab, Mohamad Malas, Fares Fayyad), Senegal (Ramata-Toulaye Sy), Yemen (Shaima Al Tamimi) and more than a dozen other countries, as well as video works by artists Wael Shawky, Lida Abdul, Hassan Khan and Sofia al-Maria.

In a press statement, QM and DFI chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said: “Opening at the same time as the Venice Art Biennale and continuing throughout the presentation of the Venice Film Festival, Your ghosts are mine will open the eyes of multitudes of international viewers to the ideas, the feelings, and above all the artistic visions of today’s filmmakers from the Arab world and neighboring regions. By presenting this exhibition, Qatar Museums advances its key mission of encouraging understanding across borders through cultural exchange, while the Doha Film Institute fulfils its mandate to nurture and promote the rising talents of our region.”