Biography
Lara Khaldi is a cultural worker whose projects address colonial issues, the dystopian present and the impossibilities inherent in language and communication.
Khaldi has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions and events, including School of Intrusions (educational platform with Noor Abed), Ramallah (2020); Overtone: On the Politics of Listening (exhibition and symposium), Goethe-Institut, Ramallah (2019); Unweaving Narratives (performance programme), Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2018); Shifting Ground, Act II, Sharjah Biennial 13, Ramallah (2017); Desires into Fossils: Monuments Without a State (research exhibitions with Reem Shilleh), Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah (2017); Eclipses, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah (2017); Oh Whale, Don’t Swallow Our Moon (solo exhibition of Jumana Emil Abboud’s work), Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah (2016); and Jerusalem Shows V and VI, Al Ma’mal Art Foundation, Jerusalem (2011, 2013).
Since 2009, she has been collaborating with Yazan Khalili on lecture performances. Their collaborative work includes Love Letter to Mars, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016), Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oslo (2014), and Medrar, Cairo (2013); Love Letters to a Union: The Falling Comrades, Forum Expanded, Berlin (2015); and Home Works 6, Beirut (2013).
Khaldi has contributed to art publications, especially around her ongoing research project on the question of museums in struggle. Forthcoming is the essay ‘We Are Still Alive So Remove Us from Memory: Asynchronicity and the Museum in Resistance’ in Errant Journal (2020). Other publications include ‘The Impossible Museum in Of(f) Our Times: The Aftermath of the Ephemeral and Other Curatorial Anachronics’ in Of(f) Our Times: Curatorial Anachronics (Sternberg Press, 2019) and ‘The Phantom Archive’ in Time Has Fallen Asleep in the Afternoon Sunshine (OsloBIENNNALEN and Mouse Publishing, 2019).
Khaldi was a lecturer in media studies and the head of the Media Studies Program at Bard Alquds College, Jerusalem (2018–2020). She was also director of the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah (2011–2013). She is an alumna of the Division of Philosophy, Art and Cultural Theory, European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
She was born in Jerusalem, where she continues to live and work.
SAF participation:
Production Programme 2020 (Jury)
March Project 2017
Sharjah Biennial 9 and 13