Ala Younis

Courtesy of CAAC Seville, Spain
Photo: Raul Dolbado

Biography

As artist, researcher and curator, Ala Younis has explored the formation of the modern Arab world and the potential for renewed thought and action the era continues to inspire.

She is co-Head of Berlinale’s Forum Expanded, co-artistic director of Singapore Biennale 2022, and research scholar at al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art in New York University Abu Dhabi. She co-founded (with Maha Maamoun) the non-profit publishing initiative Kayfa ta.

Younis’ work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at VI PER, Prague (2020); Sharjah Art Foundation (2018); Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2018); and Darat al Funun, Amman (2009), among others. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions, including at Tallinn Art Hall (2021); Art Sonje Center 1F Project Space, Seoul (2020); MoMA PS1 (2019); ifa-Galerie, Berlin and Stuttgart (2018); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2017); Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo (2017); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016); 56th Venice Biennale (2015); and KW Institute, Berlin (2015).

Younis has curated the first Kuwaiti Pavilion at Venice Biennale in 2013. She has also organised the project Museum of Manufactured Response to Absence (2012–ongoing), which has been presented in Kuwait, Algeria and Ramallah.

At Sharjah Art Foundation, she has participated in do it بالعربي [in Arabic] (2016) as well as several March Meetings, including the first edition in 2008. With Tarek Abou El Fetouh, she co-edited the two-volume book The Time is Out of Joint. She edited a monograph on the work of Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara with Hoor Al Qasimi, published by the Foundation in 2020.

Her work is in the collections of Sharjah Art Foundation; Art Jameel, Dubai and Jeddah; Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Darat al Funun, Amman, among others.

Younis holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Jordan (1997) and a Master of Research from Goldsmiths, University of London (2016).

Born in 1974 in Kuwait City, she currently lives and works in Amman.

SAF Participation:
March Meeting 2022
March Meeting 2018

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