Rana Hamadeh

Rana Hamadeh, Can You Pull in an Actor With a Fishhook or Tie Down His Tongue With a Rope?, 2014. Photo Roger Sinek

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Rana Hamadeh proposes that justice be understood 
as the extent to which one can access the dramatic,
 or theatrical, means of representation. By way of narration, props, chants, and scenography, she orchestrates paradoxical situations where the theatrical and actual exist simultaneously. Taking as a case study the Shiite ritual of ashura – where tens of thousands of men, women and children take to the streets to re-enact and ‘re-witness’ the slaying of their spiritual leader – she decodes this performance, re-arranges its elements allowing a new experience to emerge.

Rana Hamadeh (b. 1983, Beirut) lives and works in Rotterdam. Her work has been shown, among others, at EVTA International, 2014 and KIOSK, 2014; Meanwhile…Suddenly and Then, Lyon Biennale; Lisson Gallery and Beirut, 2013; Townhouse Gallery, 2012; Van Abbemuseum, 2011; Beirut Art Center, 2010; and New Museum, 2009. She graduated in 2009 with an MFA from the Dutch Art Institute/ ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, and is currently auditing within the Curatorial Knowledge PhD programme at Goldsmiths University, London.