'aʿmāl al-'arḍ

With works by: Adam Broomberg & Rafael Gonzalez, Andrea De Siena & Emily Jacir & Luca Rossi, Baha Hilo, Dima Srouji & Jasbir Puar, Duncan Campbell & Samer Barbari, Eli Wewentxu & Nicolás Jaar, Emily Jacir, Isabella Hammad, Michael Rakowitz, Mohammad Saleh, Researching Palestine, Sari Khoury, Sebastián Jatz Rawicz, Shayma Hamad, Stéphanie Janaina, Vivien Sansour

Curated by Jonathan Turner and Antonia Alampi

Following its first iteration as a Collateral Event to the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 'aʿmāl al-'arḍ – Landworks, Collective Action and Sound now unfolds in a new form, developed in conversation with Spore Initiative. Bringing together works produced by artists, collectives, and allies in and around the southern West Bank, the exhibition explores land, agriculture, and heritage as spaces of resilience, memory, and collective practice in a reality where access to these very foundations of life is constantly challenged. 

The works exhibited are the result of artists residencies at Dar Jacir for Art and Research which houses multiple projects grounded in shared encounters and hospitality. Founded in 2014, Dar Jacir is an interdisciplinary experimental learning hub that fosters cross-cultural and intergenerational exchanges. A process and practice-oriented platform, it is devoted to educational, cultural, and agricultural exchanges and productions deeply rooted in Bethlehem. 

The exhibition highlights how artistic practice becomes a form of persistence—engaging with land not only as a site of labour and sustenance but also as a space of cultural transmission, remembrance, and future-making. This iteration unfolds across three interwoven chapters. The first, Land, Memory, and the Rhythms of Survival, reflects on the endurance of place, exploring how artistic gestures—through movement, photography, and material archives—preserve histories, challenge erasures, and forge connections across generations. The second, Land, Nourishment, and the Politics of Care, focuses on agriculture, foraging, and food as acts of resistance, tracing how artists engage with seeds, soil, and shared rituals to sustain both community and identity. The final chapter, Absence, Sound, and the Politics of Visibility, considers what remains unseen—how sound, ephemeral traces, and overlooked details reveal the layers of restriction, adaptation, and presence in contested landscapes. 

From the hands that plant and harvest to the bodies that dance and move, the works speak to the endurance of place, the interdependence of human and non-human rhythms, and the ways in which collectivity strengthens amid imposed fragmentation. Whether through preserving seeds, reviving generational techniques, mapping sonic environments, or enacting gestures of care, these practices insist on presence, continuity, and imagination. Through these works, 'aʿmāl al-'arḍ reflects the deep connections between agriculture, sound, movement, and storytelling, showing how tending to the land is not just about sustenance, but about survival, artistic practice, and the reaffirmation of belonging. 

The audience is invited to listen and engage, to attune to the rhythms of work and care, to the gestures and voices that persist. To stand among these works is to stand within an ongoing conversation—one that grows, shifts, and carries forward, like roots threading through soil, even in the face of erasure.