Mohamed Abusal

Born in Gaza in 1976 Mohamed Abusal explores the precarity and absurdity of living under siege. A painter, photographer, and video and installation artist, Abusal’s works offer a provocative and critical reflection on the trappings–both technological, political, and social–of living in Gaza today.   His The Precious 20cm Stone (2016) is a regular building stone encrusted with crystals that are placed within a glass box, to highlight the extortionate costs of reconstruction and the profit involved for those who benefit from Gaza’s destruction. He is also known for his Metro in Gaza (2012) series, which proposed a network of seven metro stops that connect the different areas of the Gaza Strip. Building a metro sign and taking photographs of where the metro stops should be, Abusal invites a reflection on disconnectivity and de-development. Abusal has been widely exhibited including Al-Mamal Foundation in Jerusalem, the French Institute in Gaza, Ramallah, and Nablus, and internationally, notably in France, where he has had several solo exhibitions, in addition to the US, UK, Australia, and Dubai. In 2005 he was awarded the Charles Aspry Prize for Contemporary Art.