Mounira Al Solh
- Mounira Al Solh
- Work
A Dance with her Myth, exhibition view, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2024
Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978, Lebanon, lives and works between Beirut and Amsterdam) is a visual artist embracing inter alia video and video installations, painting and drawing, text, embroidery, and performative gestures. Irony and self-reflectivity are central strategies for her work, which explores feminist issues, tracks patterns of micro-history, bears witness to the impact of conflict and displacement, is socially engaged, and can be political and poetically escapist all at once. Her practice utilizes oral documentation, multidisciplinary collaboration and wordplay to explore themes of memory and loss. Motivated by acts of sharing and storytelling, change and resistance, Al Solh strives to craft a sensory language that defies nationality and creed.
In 2008, Al Solh started NOA Magazine (Not Only Arabic), a collaborative initiative co-edited with collaborators such as Fadi El Tofeili, Mona Abu Rayyan and Jacques Aswad. She co-founded NOA Language School in Amsterdam (2013), which functioned as a temporary research platform for investigations into the relationships between language and immigration.
Al Solh has had exhibitions at Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany (2022); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2022); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2020); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (2018); Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2018); and The Art Institute Chicago (2018).
She has also participated in group exhibitions including the Sharjah Biennial (2023); Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmengen, the Netherlands (2022); Busan Biennale (2022); ROZENSTRAAT, Amsterdam (2022); Musée National de Pablo Picasso–La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris, France (2020); Palais De Tokyo, Paris (2020); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2020); Carré d’Art Musée d’art contemporain de Nîmes (2018), Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); Venice Biennale (2015); New Museum Triennial, New York (2012); Sharjah Biennial 9 (2009); and 11th International Istanbul Biennial (2009), among others.
In 2024, Al Solh represents Lebanon at the 60th Venice Biennale.
She is the winner of the ABN AMRO Art Award (2023), The Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize (2023); received the Uriôt Prize from the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007) and the Black Magic Woman Award, Amsterdam (2007). She was also shortlisted for the Abraaj Group Art Prize, Dubai (2015) and nominated for the Volkskrant Award, Amsterdam (2009). Her video Rawane’s Song won the jury prize at Videobrasil (2007).
She learned the double bass at the national conservatory of music in Lebanon, then studied painting at the Lebanese University in Beirut (1997–01) and Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (2003–06). She was also a research resident at Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (2007–08).
Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
2024 | Lebanese Pavilion, La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy |
2023 | Pocket Rhythms, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg |
2022 | 13 April, 13 April, 13 April, Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany A day is as long as a year, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom |
2020 | MAM Screen 013: Mounira Al Solh, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan |
2019 | The Mother of David and Goliath, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
2018 | Artist’s Rooms, Jameel Arts Center, Dubai, UAE I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, The Art Institute Chicago |
2016 | I Want to Be a Party, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany I Strongly Believe in Our Right to Be Frivolous, Alt Art Space, Istanbul, Turkey |
2014 | All Mother Tongues are Difficult, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Now Eat My Script, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany |
2012 | The Sea Is A Stereo, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Dinosaurs, Art in General, New York, USA |
2011 | Mounira Al Solh, René Daniëls and Bassam Ramlawi, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
2010 | The Sea Is A Stereo, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisboa, Portugal Exhibition No. 17, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
2008 | Rijksakademie, Open Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
2005 | Squatted Vitrine, Squat Deluxe, Rotterdam, Netherlands |
2003 | 150 Watts, Fennel Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
Selected Group Exhibitions | |
2024 | Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (forthcoming) |
2023 | Dream City Festival, Tunis, Tunisia Artes Mundi 10, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom Choreographies of the Impossible, 35th Bienal De São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil My past is a foreign country, DEO Projects, Temenos Hamidiye & Ottoman Baths, Chios, Greece Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, The Whitworth, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom Threads: ‘Breathing stories into materials’, Arnolfini, Bristol, United Kingdom Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, United Kingdom Traces of Displacement, The Whitworth, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom Indiscipline, WIELS, Brussels and Grand Casino, Knokke-Heist, Belgium Thinking Historically in the Present, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE |
2022 | Moving Stories, Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmengen, Netherlands We, on the rising wave, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea |
2021 | Interwoven Histories by Touch/Trace, ROZENSTRAAT, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
2020 | Risquons-Tout, WIELS, Brussels, Belgium Mounira Al Solh, Musée national Pablo Picasso, La Guerre et la Paix, Place de la Libération, Vallauris, France Faces: a Look at the Other, Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France Fragmenter le monde / Our world is burning, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France QALQALAH قلقلة : plus d’une langue, Centre régional d'art contemporain, CRAC OCCITANIE / Pyrénées-Méditerranée, Sète, France |
2019 | Positions #5, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands Gohyang: Home, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea Social Movement, If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of Your Revolution, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
2018 | Close: Drawn Portraits, The Drawing Room, London, United Kingdom Vanishing Point, Carré d’Art - Museum of Contemporary Art Nîmes, France Strange Days: Memories of the Future, The Store X, London The Line Up: The Power of Drawing Central Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands Acts of Translation, Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan Beirut, Beyrut, Beyrouth, Beyrout, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway; Ystad Konstmuseum, Ystad, Sweden; Listasafn Islands, Iceland Whose land have I lit on now? - contemplation on the notions of hospitality, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany |
2017 | Contemporary and Future Mediterranean Memories, Fondazione Sambucca, Palermo, Italy Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbours, MAXXI, Rome, Italy From Ear to Ear, Nottingham Contemporary, United Kingdom 2017 Asian Art Biennial: Negotiating the Future for Changing the Society and Fashioning the Future, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan Action!, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland Suspended Territories - Artists from the Middle East and North Africa, Marta Herford, Germany dOCUMENTA 14, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, Athens, Greece dOCUMENTA 14, Hansa Häuser, Kassel, Germany The Restless Earth, La Triennale di Milano, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy My future is in my past and my past is my present, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, Netherlands Graphic Witness, Drawing Room, London, United Kingdom Art and Alphabet, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany A World Not Ours, La Kunsthalle - Center d'Art Contemporain Mullhouse, France |
2016 | The Measure of our Traveling Feet, Marres Maastricht, Netherlands Everything in Nature has a Lyrical Essence, a tragic fate, a comic existence, Art Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria Land Without Land, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany We Refugees - Of the Right to Have Rights, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany |
2015 | Gallery Gallery 3010, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy In Search Of Matisse, Henie Onstad Art Enter (HOK), Høvikodden, Norway A 1000 Times No, E-Werk, Freiburg, Germany The Abraaj Group Art Prize, Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE |
2014 | Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York, USA Drowning and swallowing this text, LACE, Los Angeles, USA I scarcely have the right to use this ghostly verb, Parsons, The New School New York, USA Neighbors, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey 5th Biennial Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco |
2013 | Dear Art, Calvert 22 Foundation, London, United Kingdom Homeworks 6, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon |
2012 | Arab Express: The Latest Art form the Arab World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Our Work Is Never Over, Matadero Madrid, Contemporary Art Center, Madrid, Spain Tactics For Now And Now, Bucharest Biennial 5, Pavilion Unicredit, Bucharest, Romania The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York, USA Dinosaurs, Art in General, New York, USA Dear Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova and Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia -o-l-o-g-y, Amstel 41, Amsterdam, Netherlands De Menocchio, Nous savons beaucoup de choses, Bétonsalon, Paris, France |
2011 | I Decided Not to Save the World, Tate Modern, London, UK in collaboration with SALT Istanbul, Turkey A Rock and a Hard Place, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece The Sea Is A Stereo, Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark Beirut, project space, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria |
2010 | Manifesta 8, The European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Region of Murcia, Spain in Dialogue with Northern Africa The Future of Tradition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany Accident, KunstBunker, forum for contemporary art, Nuremberg, Germany Heat Wave, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York, USA Witty Lo-Fi Works with Knotty Thoughts, Montevideo (NIMK), Amsterdam, Netherlands I’m Not Here. An Exhibition Without Francis Alÿs, De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands Volkskrant Prize, Stedelijk Museum Scheidam, Netherlands Categorical Imperatives, The Guild Art Gallery, New York, USA and Mumbai, India |
Public Collections | |
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Pinakotheek, Munich; Saradar Art Collection, Beirut; Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis; Tate Modern, London; | |
Education | |
2001 | Lebanese University, BFA in Painting, Beirut, Lebanon |
2006 | Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Fine Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
2007–08 | Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Research Resident, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Awards and Grants | |
2023 | ABN AMRO Art Award |
2022 | Artes Mundi Prize (shortlisted) |
2015 | Kamel Lazaar Project Fund |
2014 | The Abraaj Art Prize (shortlisted) |
2010 | Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prize (nominated) |
2007 | Uriot Prize, Rijksakademie NL 2007 Grant 16th International Electronic Art Festival – Videobrasil |