Basma al Sharif
Basma al-Sharif (b. 1983, lives and works in Berlin) is a Palestinian artist/filmmaker who explores cyclical political histories and conflicts. Al-Sharif confronts the legacy of colonialism through satirical, immersive, and lyrical works, in films and installations that move backwards and forwards in history, between place and non-place.
Al-Sharif received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007. Her work has been shown at Hannah Ryggen triennial, Trondheim; Pompidou Metz; De Appel, Amsterdam; the Art Institute of Chicago; MOMA, New York; CCA Glasgow; SALT Galata, Istanbul; the 78th Whitney Biennial, New York; New Museum, New York; Berlin Documentary Forum; Manifesta 8, Murcia / Cartagena, among others. Al-Sharif’s video works have also been widely screened in international film festivals.
Old Masters
2025
Video, 13 min 10 sec
Courtesy of the artist
Presented with support from ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) and IASPIS
Basma al-Sharif’s new work Old Masters was filmed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in the spring of 2025. Inspired by Gus van Sant’s film Elephant (2003) and Alan Clarke’s earlier work (1989) with the same title, the video work follows protagonists throughout the museum and through an orange garden in Gaza. In conversation with fellow artists, al-Sharif opens up a space for reflection on the role of the witness.
In Old Masters, al-Sharif returns to ideas and questions raised in an earlier work, Ouroboros, a film she conceived nearly ten years ago as a visual elegy for Gaza, connecting Palestine to other parts of the world. In Ouroboros, al-Sharif asks what gets to survive versus what is destroyed. As a genocide is enacted in Gaza, these questions remain urgent and shape al-Sharif’s new work.