Amos Rex is proud to present the first major solo exhibition of Palestinian-Danish video and installation artist Larissa Sansour (b. 1973) in Finland. Past, present and possible futures meet in a darkly expressive exhibition in which political but universally human topical issues interweave with imagined realities using the narrative methods of science fiction, documentary and opera.
The cinematic, precise visuality of Larissa Sansour’s work invites you to immerse yourself in a future landscape where it is possible to think differently. From the loss of the Palestinian people to the persistent threat of environmental catastrophe, the exhibition expands into studies of grief, memory and inherited trauma. Sansour’s work uses the speculative narrative of science fiction to peer into the future, as well as experimental visuality. Through her work, Sansour re-imagines the history of a nation on the brink of annihilation and of her homeland. The artist’s own lived experience and heritage are the sources of her artistic production.
The exhibition is an opportunity to pause and reflect not only on the long history of this conflict but also on broader issues of national identity, shared human experiences, and collective memory.
The exhibition unfolds through seven video and installation works and their narrative progresses – from heavy burden of trauma to the exhilaration of a moon landing. Made between 2009 and 2022, the works are narrative and cinematic, with a combined duration of 92 minutes. If you want to see the works from start to finish, please reserve enough time for your visit. The spoken language of the works is Arabic, with subtitles in English, Finnish and Swedish. One artwork also has subtitles in Arabic.
The Larissa Sansour exhibition is on display at Amos Rex from 9 October 2024 to 2 March 2025, curated by Terhi Tuomi.
Larissa Sansour
Palestinian-Danish artist Larissa Sansour (b. 1973, East Jerusalem) is an internationally acclaimed video and installation artist whose multi-stranded career extends from the early 2000s to the present. Sansour started her career in painting, but soon moved on to photography and video.
Her early works combined popular culture, humor and activism. Today, Sansour also focuses on political topics through science fiction and experimental film narrative. She works closely with author and director Søren Lind, and most of the artworks shown at Amos Rex are created in this collaboration.
Larissa Sansour’s work has been shown in numerous art institutions around the world. She has participated in group exhibitions at MoMA in New York and Tate Modern in London, among others. In 2019, Sansour represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale 2019 and her works are part of several significant art collections. In 2016, Sansour also won the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF) Award for Best Experimental Short Film for In The Future They Ate From The Finest Porcelain (2016).
Read artist Larissa Sansour’s interview with exhibition curator Terhi Tuomi here:
Exhibition brochure
Larissa Sansour’s works are meant to be seen in the dark, which is why there is no text to read in the exhibition halls. If you want to know more about the artist and her artwork, you can take a look at the exhibition brochure. You can find the brochure either in the underground lobby, in the Studio Rex workshop space, or online.
