Ahmad Alaqrah and Abed Alrahman Shabaneh Awarded Inaugural Art Jameel Curatorial Open Call

Congratulations to curators Ahmad Alaqrah and Abed Alrahman Shabaneh for being awarded the inaugural Art Jameel Curatorial Open Call!

The Open Call accepted exhibition proposals with themes pertaining to the Red Sea – its connected geographies, histories, ecologies, and the movement of people and ideas. 

Palestinian curatorial duo Alaqrah and Shabaneh’s exhibition stems from their research into vessels that have traversed the Red Sea across history and folklore. Combining archival material and contemporary artworks to weave a story of the sea across time, they will work with the Art Jameel team to develop, produce, design and install the show.

Stay tuned for more on their exhibition, taking place at Hayy Arts at Hayy Jameel, May 2024.

Ahmed Al-Aqra

Al-Aqra is a Palestinian artist, curator, and researcher. His pursuits deftly navigate the aesthetics of power inherent in the myriad societal and political frameworks that govern our public realm. Ahmed has actively participated in and curated numerous exhibitions in cities such as Ramallah, Amman, Helsinki, London, and Paris. Recently, he concluded an impactful tenure as a guest curator at the Palestinian Museum. Ahmed co-founded the FANA’ Collective—an experimental and discursive platform that venerates “deconstruction” as the nucleus of their artistic ethos. In 2020, he co-founded EL-GORFEH, pioneering the establishment of the first community Dark Room in Palestine. Ahmed’s intellectual contributions extend to publications in esteemed zines and journals, including The Funambulist, Jerusalem Quarterly, Discontent, and his co-editorship of the Black Journal.

Abed Alrahman Shabaneh

Shabaneh is a Palestinian writer and curator who investigates social dynamics, cultural structures, and art as community contributions. He published his poetry collection titled Making of a Place (Ijtirah al-Makan) in 2015. His art book titled The Golden Warrior won the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture’s Creative and Critical Writings grant in 2019. He also published a novel titled Heaps of Metal (Akwam Al-Ma’dan) in 2022. Shabaneh is also a formally trained architect from Birzeit University, graduating in 2012. He has also curated and organized various art exhibitions and cultural events and currently works as a senior librarian of Leila Miqdadi Library at the A.M. Qattan foundation.