film-maker Larissa Sansour
Born in Jerusalem, Sansour studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue and utilises video art, photography, experimental documentary, the book form and the internet.
Despite its stylised imagery, sterile futurism and high production value, sci-fi tends to allow for a specific kind of almost nostalgia framing of the topic at hand, even the situation in the Middle East. Sci-fi almost invariably carries within it a sense of retro, ideas of the future tend to appear standard and cliché at the same time as they come across as visionary.
Sansour borrows heavily from the language of film and pop culture. By approximating the nature, reality and complexity of life in Palestine and the Middle East to visual forms normally associated with entertainment and televised pastime, her grandiose and often humorous schemes clash with the gravity expected from works commenting on the region. References and details ranging from sci-fi and spaghetti westerns to horror films converge with Middle East politics and social issues to create intricate parallel universes in which a new value system can be decoded.
Sansour's work features in galleries, museums, film festivals and art publications worldwide. Recent solo shows include exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Galerie La B.A.N.K in Paris, DEPO in Istanbul and Jack the Pelican in New York.
She has participated in the biennials in Istanbul, Busan and Liverpool. Her work has appeared at the Third Guangzhou Triennial in China, LOOP in Seoul, South Korea, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and PhotoCairo4 in Egypt.
Sansour's graphic novel The Novel of Nonel and Vovel - a collaboration with Oreet Ashery - first appeared in Venice Biennale bookshops and was since launched at the Tate Modern, UK, the Brooklyn Museum, USA, and Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre, Denmark. Her short film A Space Exodus was nominated in the Best Short category at the Dubai International Film Festival.
Exhibitions in 2012 include the Centre for Photography in Copenhagen, Galerie Anne de Villepoix in Paris and Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.
She lives and works in London.
filmography
2015 In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain, 29’, sci-fi, with Soren Lind
2012 Nation Estate, 9' 04'', sci-fi
2012 Feast of the Inhabitants, 15'
2011 Trespass the Salt, 10', 3-channel experimental documentary, with Youmna Chlala
2011 Falafel Road, 60', experimental documentary, with Oreet Ashery
2009 A Space Exodus, 5' 24'', sci-fi
2008 SBARA, 8'30''
2008 Run Lara Run, 2'
2007 Soup Over Bethlehem, 9'30'', experimental documentary
2006 Happy Days, 2'30''
2005 Bethlehem Bandolero, 5'12''