Yazan Khalili Palestinian , b. 1981

Overview

Hiding our faces like a dancing wind, 2016

Yazan Khalili (b. 1981, Palestine) works with photography and writing to examine historically constructed landscapes and the political and emotional dimensions of territory. His photography is detailed, reflective and full of intent, often borrowing from cinematic language in which images become frames where the spectator embodies the progression of time and narrative. Through photography and the written word, he unpacks scenery and the act of gazing, forming questions and paradoxes that are refracted through what he describes as intimate politics and alienating poetics. His work focuses in particular on the effect of geographical distance on our rendering of landscape, and on its ability to heighten or arrest political and sentimental attachments. He received a degree in Architecture from Birzeit University (2003), an MA from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London (2010), and an MFA from the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (2015). His work has been exhibited internationally, including at MoMA, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit; the Shanghai Biennale; Documenta Fifteen, Kassel;, and is held in collections including Centre Pompidou, Paris; the British Museum, London; Sharjah Art Foundation; and the Imperial War Museum, London.

VIEW CV

Eflux Podcast Interview with David Kim

Works

Colour Correction 1 (EP), 2007-10
Bounty, 2010
Regarding Distance - The Landscape & The Image (Diptych), 2010
Blindness of Love, 2013
Robbery in Area A, 2013-16
The Day We Saw Nothing In Front of Us 1, 2015
Hiding our faces like a dancing wind, 2016
I, The Artwork, 2016
Apartheid Monochromes, 2017
Medusa: Don't Be a Stranger, 2020
Colour Correction 2, 2007-10
Colour Correction 1.5, 2007-10
Colour Correction 1 (small), 2007-10
Scouting for Locations, 2013
Scouting for Locations, 2013

Biography

Hiding our faces like a dancing wind, 2016

View works

Khalili received a degree in Architecture from Birzeit University, Palestine (2003), graduated with a Master’s degree from the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths, University of London (2010), and an MFA from the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (2015). He was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2020–2022), and at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (2022). He is currently based in Amsterdam, where he is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam.

In 2017 Khalili was commissioned to produce Falling Stone/Flying Stone for the inaugural exhibition for the Museum of Palestine. Khalili is the recipient of the Mophradat Consortium Commission 2020, and of EXTRACT Young Art Prize, 2016.

Solo exhibitions include Interludes and Transitions, the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia (2026); Hawai’i Triennial 2025, Hawai’i (2025); Medusa, MOCA, Toronto (2020); Medusa, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2020); No One Saw the Colors, Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen (2018); On the Other Side of the Law, Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai (2017); Blindness of Love, Present Future, Artissima, Turin; On Love and Other Landscapes, Mumbai Art Room (2015); The Aliens, Transit Gallery, Mechelen (2015); Regarding Distance, Edge of Arabia Projects, London (2014); On Love and Other Landscapes, Imane Fares Gallery, Paris (2013); Landscape of Darkness, Transit Gallery, Mechelen (2011); Margins, Delfina Foundation, London (2008); and Urban Impressions, French Cultural Center, Gaza (2007).

Select group exhibitions include: It Takes a Village, EVA International Biennale, Limerick, Ireland (2025); Counter/Surveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency, Wende Museum, California (2024); Documenta Fifteen, Kassel (2022); SP–Arte, São Paulo (2022); Being: New Photography, MoMA, New York (2018); Jerusalem Lives, Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2017); Why Not Ask Again? Maneuvers, Disputations & Stories, 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016); the 11th Shanghai Biennale (2016); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016); After the Last Sky, Berlin (2016); First Biennial of Photography by Contemporary Arab Artists, Institut du Monde Arabe & Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2015); Sharjah Biennial 11; Home Works 6, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2013); Right to Refusal, Bregenz (2012); Berlinale 62, Berlin (2012); and Future of a Promise Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale.

Khalili’s work is in several prominent collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Lewben Art Foundation, Vilnius; Videoinsight Foundation, Turin; the British Museum, London; Sharjah Art Foundation; Imperial War Museum, London and Dar El-Nimer Collection, Beirut.

Khalili lives and works in Amsterdam.

VIEW CV

Exhibitions