Between Circles and Constellations attests to Bouchra Khalili's committed enquiry into the hidden histories of solidarities among transnational and stateless communities through a selection of significant projects over the last 15 years. Neither fiction nor documentary, her work interweaves varied visual and sonic materials, formulating hypotheses for new emancipatory forms of belonging.
Spanning film, photography, print, installation, publication and textile, the Morocco-born artist’s work centres around collaborations with members of communities rendered invisible by the nation-state. Her collaborators act as ‘civic poets’ who merge the personal and collective, and, together with the artist, develop alternative ways of witnessing history. Employing montage as a tool for articulation and speculation, Khalili’s narrative style invites her audience to also become active collaborators and eventually join the cohort of civic poets populating her works.
The two key words in the exhibition’s title—circles and constellations—echo the potential communities envisaged in Khalili’s works. ‘Circles’ refers to al halqa, a traditional Moroccan form of storytelling in which people across generations gather in a circle and exchange memories and political ideals. While this type of civic gathering has been present in the artist’s practice from the beginning, it is highlighted in her recent works revolving around the theatre groups founded by North African migrant workers in 1970s’ France, as well as her new two-channel installation The Public Storyteller (2024), which was shot in Marrakesh. ‘Constellations’ arise in the network of transnational solidarities that the exhibition reveals by connecting different migrant and anti-colonial groups and their struggles across seas and continents.
Bringing these works together, the exhibition bears witness to what the artist calls ‘radical citizenship’: an unconditional conception of community freed from normative notions of identity.
Between Circles and Constellations is organised by Sharjah Art Foundation and MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. The exhibition is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director and President of Sharjah Art Foundation, with Amal Al Ali and Meera Madhu, Curatorial Assistants at Sharjah Art Foundation.