In Past Show

Larissa Sansour - Nation Estate at Montoro12 Contemporary Art

Jerusalem-born, London-based Larissa Sansour makes videos and photographs fusing pop-cultural aesthetics with issues surrounding Palestinian identity and Israeli occupation. In response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and unsuccessful attempts at peace, she addresses displacement by creating fictional spaces for Palestinians to settle. In one video, A Space Exodus (2009), she reinvents herself as a “Palestinaut,” who travels to the moon to claim the nationless site for her own country. Her pursuit is heroic but ultimately elusive: when she finally reaches the moon, her contact with Palestine is cut off. In her “Nation Estate” (2012) series, Sansour conceptualizes an immense high-rise as a new home for her people. In each digitally manipulated photograph in this series, she places herself on a different floor of the edifice. We see her travel from the main lobby, to the Dead Sea, to Gaza, all in the space of a single building.