Psychic Refuge:
Commissions Programme
Dates
Habibi Collective
1–5 September 2021
Inas Halabi
From 26 October 2021
Alaa Abu Asad
From 9 November 2021
Radio Alhara
From 23 November
Psychic Refuge: Commissions Programme
Sophie Hoyle
September 2021 – Ongoing
Forma and artist Sophie Hoyle are pleased to present a series of commissions developed in response to Psychic Refuge, a cross-disciplinary digital resource which consolidates the period of research and development undertaken by Sophie as part of their collaboration with Unlimited and Forma in the 2019/20 round of Partnership grants.
Following the launch of Psychic Refuge in Spring 2021, Hoyle has invited artists and collectives to elaborate responses and actions in relation to the project, through film, music and text: Habibi Collective, Inas Halabi, Alaa Abu Asad and Radio Alhara.
All commissions are hosted on psychicrefuge.com
Biographies
Psychic Refuge is a digital resource which gathers contemporary understandings and applications of trauma studies and psychology, PTSD and treatments in the context of Palestinian occupation. It pairs new writing and digital content by the artist with contributions from related organisations and experts, plus direction to relevant external resources. Text will be available to read in both English and Arabic. The website was designed and developed by Studio Hyte to prioritise accessibility, including integrating options for specialised functions.
Sophie Hoyle is an artist and writer whose practice explores an intersectional approach to post-colonial, queer, feminist, critical psychiatry and disability issues. Their work looks at the relation of the personal to (and as) political, individual and collective anxieties, and how alliances can be formed where different kinds of inequality and marginalisation intersect. They relate personal experiences of being queer, non-binary and part of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) diaspora to wider forms of structural violence. From lived experience of psychiatric conditions and trauma, or PTSD, they began to explore the history of biomedical technologies rooted in state and military surveillance and control. @semhoyle
Habibi Collective is a digital archive, podcast and curatorial platform for women’s cinema from South-West Asia and North Africa (SWANA). Habibi Collective has generated an international cinema community, and has hosted numerous screening events at institutions, such as at MoMA and Sharjah Art Foundation, festivals and community spaces across the world. The podcast has welcomed guests such as Alia Shawkat and Annemarie Jacir; Habibi Collective has also hosted multiple community fundraiser events for those affected by conflict in the region. Habibi Collective also powers SHASHA, the world’s first independent streaming service for SWANA cinema. Founded in 2018 by Róisín Tapponi, she was joined in 2021 by friends and cinema workers Shahnaz Dulaimy, Reman Sadani, Louise Gholam, Bella Barkett and Nour Helou. For more, follow: @habibicollective.
Inas Halabi is an artist working predominantly with film. Her practice is concerned with how social and political forms of power are manifested and the impact that overlooked or suppressed histories have on contemporary life. She holds an MFA from Goldsmiths College in London and recently completed a two year residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. In 2016, she was awarded first prize for the A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year. Recent exhibitions and screenings include the Mosaic Rooms, London (2019); TENT, Rotterdam (2019); De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2019); Silent Green Betonhalle, Berlin (2019); Smith College Museum of Art, USA (2018); Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil (2018); al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, Jerusalem (2017); OFF-Biennale Budapest (2017), and the 13th Sharjah Biennial’s Offsite project, Shifting Ground (2017). She lives and works between Palestine and the Netherlands.
Alaa Abu Asad (عَلاء أبو أسعد) is an artist, researcher, and photographer. His practice is centred around developing alternative trajectories in which values of (re)presentation, translation, viewing, reading, and understanding can intersect. Language and plants are main themes in his research–based work, which takes form in writing, film and interactive installations.
Radio Alhara is a radio based in Bethlehem, Ramallah and Amman. Launched during a global lockdown crisis, it encompasses the idea of a public space. The radio hosts musical sets, conversations, recordings, discussions, and its main aim is to blend the limits between producers and listeners.
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DISCLAIMER
Forma and all who work at Forma support the people of Palestine in their calls for justice. We share the Artists for Palestine UK vision of ‘a world where Palestinians and Israelis have the right to live with dignity, freedom, justice and equality’. We encourage creatives, our partners and audiences to demand that our government take action and hold Israel to account for its violation of Palestinian rights and the violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people.
SUPPORTERS
Psychic Refuge programme is supported by Unlimited, celebrating the work of disabled artists, with funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Dates
Habibi Collective
1–5 September 2021
Inas Halabi
From 26 October 2021
Alaa Abu Asad
From 9 November 2021
Radio Alhara
From 23 November