Ayreen Anastas

Ayreen Anastas was born in Bethlehem, Palestine. She currently lives in Brooklyn. Anastas is one of the organizers of the 16 Beaver group, an artist community that functions as a social and collaborative space on 16 Beaver street in downtown Manhattan, where the group hosts panel discussions, film series, artist talks, radio recordings, reading groups and more. Anastas' recent artistic projects and exhibitions include: Pasolini Pa* Palestine filmed while at Al-Ma'mal residency in Jerusalem in 2003 (shown at Homeworks III, Beirut 2005, and at Hebbel Theater, Berlin 2006), M* of Bethlehem (shown at Kettles Yard, Cambridge, 2009, Argos festival in Brussels 2005 and at CCA Glasgow — In the poem about love you don't write the word love? 2005), Thus I spoke, and ever more softly: for I feared my own thoughts and hinterthoughts (shown in Never Part, at BOZAR, Brussels. 2008 and at Homeworks V, Beirut 2010).

Ayreen Anastas' and Rene Gabri's collaborative projects have evolved a great deal through their work at 16Beaver. Their Radioactive Discussion series was a physical counterpart to their fictional Homeland Security Cultural Bureau project. The artists had a solo exhibition entitled 'eine welt ein thema ein korn ein zeichen ein lied ein spaziergang ein lächeln eine wand eine notiz ein datum eine karte eine und eine frage' at Kunstverein Arnsberg (2011). Other collaborations include: Camp Campaign, Artist talk, Radio Active, United We Stand, What Everybody Knows, Eden Resonating, 7X77, Case Sensitive America and more.

16Beaver is the address of a space initiated/run by artists to create and maintain an ongoing platform for the presentation, production, and discussion of a variety of artistic/cultural/economic/political projects. It is the point of many departures/arrivals. Their latest project was their participation in dOCUMENTA13 with AND,AND,AND. During the 100 days of dOCUMENTA (13), AND AND AND hosted and organized an open and experimental public program with artists, activists, farmers, students, thinkers, residents, and visitors from Kassel and beyond. This program interwove philosophical, poetical, political, practical, pedagogical, psychical, and physical zones of inquiry in one space/time. It was grounded in a conviction that, today, all fields of human activity must critically re-examine the values, assumptions, and modalities of doing.

Ayreen Anastas at the DAI:

Group Conversation
Publishing Class III - How to Live Together
Roaming Academy / goes New York