For the Cosmopolis #1 exhibition Foundland's Lauren Alexander (DAI, 2011) & Ghalia Elsrakbi present the first episode of their artistic research project "The New World". Their installation at Centre Pompidou incorporates a map and a video narrating the travels of Amer and Sana Khaddaj, Lebanese musicians of Palestinian origin who migrated to the United States in 1947.
THE NEW WORLD, EPISODE ONE
The New World evokes the history of the first waves of Arab immigrants to the United States, beginning in the 1880s, through elements drawn from the archives of the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
For the Cosmopolis #1 exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Foundland presents the first episode of The New World. The installation incorporates a map and a video narrating the travels of Amer and Sana Khaddaj, Lebanese musicians of Palestinian origin who migrated to the United States in 1947.
For the Cosmopolis #1 exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Foundland presents the first episode of The New World. The installation incorporates a map and a video narrating the travels of Amer and Sana Khaddaj, Lebanese musicians of Palestinian origin who migrated to the United States in 1947.
Background information about their research process:
During summer 2015 Foundland began research at the unique Faris & Yamn Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian Archive Center in Washington DC. Alixa Naff, founder of this collection, travelled through the United States from the 1960’ s through to the 1980’s to collect small stories of ordinary people from Middle Eastern decent, bringing us a fresh look at what it means to be Arab-American.
Foundland spent weeks exploring the archive to find remains of first generation immigrants who arrived in the United States from as early as 1880. The Alixa Naff collection brings together personal archives of photographs, documents and sound recordings. Foundland will be working to bring together an exhibition about our findings during the upcoming year.
During summer 2015 Foundland began research at the unique Faris & Yamn Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian Archive Center in Washington DC. Alixa Naff, founder of this collection, travelled through the United States from the 1960’ s through to the 1980’s to collect small stories of ordinary people from Middle Eastern decent, bringing us a fresh look at what it means to be Arab-American.
Foundland spent weeks exploring the archive to find remains of first generation immigrants who arrived in the United States from as early as 1880. The Alixa Naff collection brings together personal archives of photographs, documents and sound recordings. Foundland will be working to bring together an exhibition about our findings during the upcoming year.
Cosmopolis #1 exhibition at Centre Pompidou
http://foundland.info/THE-NEW-WORLD-EPISODE-ONE
https://dutchartinstitute.eu/page/6315/foundland
This project was realised with help of the prestigious
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship scholarship in 2015.