The video art programme is an attempt to introduce video art as a medium to those interested in understanding the different techniques and styles of the medium that emerged in the twentieth century. It will unfold across two main screenings, with the first bringing together works by international artists from the 1940s to the 1960s, offering an overview of experimental approaches to video and film that range from performative interventions to technical innovations. The second focuses on the Arab region, presenting how artists have engaged with the medium to express aspirations, reflect on their environments, and grapple with the societal contexts they inhabit.

In addition, the programme includes a special segment dedicated to Saudi video artist which will be announced later this year.

This will take the form of a separate screening accompanied by a talk and conversation, creating space to reflect on the specific trajectories of video art as a medium in Saudi Arabia.
This second screening is dedicated to a group of Arab artists residing in various countries around the world.

Agenda
7:00–8:30 PM

Introduction to the Programme:
Presented by Ziad Hajali, Exhibitions Manager at Art Jameel.
Open Discussion:
Led by Abdelrahiem Ibrahim, Exhibition Curator at Art Jameel.

Screening 2:

• Yto Barrada — Beau Geste (2009), 3 min 55 sec 
  Synopsis:
  A lone man tends an ailing palm tree growing in a vacant urban lot in Tangier. His seemingly simple act conceals a subversive gesture: preserving the tree ensures the plot cannot legally be developed. Barrada’s quiet film intertwines ecological care with a critique of urban speculation and state power over land.

  
  Yto Barrada (b. 1971) is a Moroccan artist working in photography, film, sculpture, and installation. Her practice frequently addresses urban transformation, ecological fragility, and socio-political narratives in Morocco and the Mediterranean. She has exhibited at MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Venice Biennale.

  Language: English. Subtitles: None. Duration: 3:55 minutes

• Jumana Emil Abboud — The Diver (2004), 4 min 49 sec

  Synopsis:
  In a spare and poetic visual language, Abboud performs simple gestures near water, evoking personal memory, longing, and the fluid borders between land, identity, and belonging. The piece layers environmental imagery with the psychological landscape of exile and displacement.

  
  Jumana Emil Abboud (b. 1971) is a Palestinian artist based in Jerusalem. Her interdisciplinary work engages drawing, video, performance, and storytelling, exploring themes of folklore, place, water, and the traces of cultural memory in Palestinian landscapes.

  Language: English. Subtitles: None. Duration: 4min 49sec.

• Adel Abidin — Memorial (2009), 3 min 35 sec

  Synopsis:
  A stranded cow stands alone in an abstract, shifting digital landscape. Alternately vulnerable and monumental, the creature becomes a metaphor for innocence trapped amid technological and environmental upheaval. The film blends absurdity with poignant critique of alienation and ecological dislocation.

  
  Adel Abidin (b. 1973) is an Iraqi-Finnish visual artist working across video, installation, and photography. Known for blending dark humor with political critique, his art explores themes of cultural identity, war, consumerism, and social absurdity. He has represented Iraq at the Venice Biennale and exhibited worldwide.

  Silent Animated short film. Language: None- silent. Subtitles: None. Duration: 3min 35sec.

• Heba Y. Amin — As Birds Flying (2016), 7 min 11 sec

  Synopsis:
  An allegorical short film constructed from leaked drone footage and fabricated audio, reimagining the detached conversations of unseen operators surveying Gaza from above. Amin critiques the supposed neutrality of aerial perspectives and exposes how surveillance technologies inscribe ideological narratives onto landscapes.

  
  Amin (b. 1980) is an Egyptian visual artist, researcher, and educator. Her multimedia practice explores technology, architecture, and the geopolitical implications of landscape and infrastructure. Amin has exhibited internationally at institutions including the Mosaic Rooms, Frankfurter Kunstverein, and the Berlin Biennale.

  Language: Arabic. Subtitles: English. Duration: 7min 11sec. 

• Oraib Toukan — When Things Occur (2016), 28 min

  Synopsis:
  The film reflects on mediated witnessing in moments of violence, drawing from Skype conversations with Palestinian photographers, fixers, and drivers in Gaza whose images circulated globally during the 2014 assault. Through still images, screen-based interviews, and pauses that foreground the act of looking, Toukan investigates how grief is visualized, transmitted, and consumed, asking what it means to see from a distance and how images become vessels for both testimony and abstraction.

  
  Oraib Toukan is a Jordanian-Palestinian artist and scholar whose work spans video, photography, and writing. Her practice examines the politics of image-making, spectatorship, and representation under conditions of conflict and displacement. Toukan’s works have been exhibited internationally, including at Tate Modern, New Museum, HKW Berlin, and the Sharjah Biennial.

  
  Language: Arabic. Subtitles: English. Duration: 28min.

Discussion and Q&A
A discussion and Q&A session will follow after each video.