Connecting people through art 

We are glad to announce the exhibition A Night We Held Between by artist Noor Abed (1988, Palestine) at NTU CCA, Singapore.
On Saturday 20 January, at 11am, artist Noor Abed will be in conversation with Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and Professor at the School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU, to delve into Abed’s vision and motivation in light of winning the Han Nefkens Foundation – Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2022, in collaboration with NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore; WIELS, Brussels; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila and Jameel Art Centre, Dubai, engaging in transcontinental institutional collaboration and the impact it had on her work.

The conversation opens with a welcome address by Han Nefkens, Founder of the Han Nefkens Foundation.

A NIGHT WE HELD BETWEEN begins with the notion of the labyrinth, which serves as a metaphorical reference that connects a historical mythology to the socio-political reality in Palestine. Filmed in spring and summer 2023, Abed focused on ancient sites in Palestine caves, carved holes, underground passages, and wild valleys. The chosen locales became the main protagonist, traversing beyond the first layers of visibility and revealing a hidden world underneath that was not seen but familiar to the places one knew.

Images become signifiers of what is lost, untold, and hence forgotten. These appear in a ghostly texture, as eerie reminders of their uncanny existence. Expanding upon this historical loss through a cinematic space allows the past to recur through a projection of imaginary gaps. The filmic score emphasizes the role of collective rhythmic movements and its potential impact in evoking shared feelings that may contribute to reconnect and sustain a community that is dislocated.

Abed weaves into her narration mythology and Palestinian folklore, creating a fusion of natural and composed sequences of movement, blending documentary and fictional elements. Through a poetic choreography of bodies, sites, narratives, and temporalities, her work prompts contemplation on the manifestations of social action and resistance in everyday life.

The featured video work A NIGHT WE HELD BETWEEN, has been created with the support of the Han Nefkens Foundation—Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2022 with its inaugural screening taking place at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.

The Han Nefkens Foundation—Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant appraises the work of artists aged 50 and under, who live in West or Central Asia and have established a solid trajectory but have not had the opportunity to exhibit extensively: this production grant should serve as an important source of support and boost in their career.

The unique way in which the foundation operates allows for artists not only to produce new work but also to have that work shown at numerous art institutions world-wide.

A NIGHT WE HELD BETWEEN will be exhibited by a transcontinental consortium consisting of the five partner institutions: Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (The Philippines); Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona (Spain); WIELS, Brussels (Belgium); NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (Singapore); Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai (UAE).

Noor Abed (Palestine/Netherlands) works at the intersection of performance and film. Abed attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in Νew York in 2015-16, and the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan, Beirut 2016-17. She received her BA from the International Academy of Arts in Palestine and a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. Abed’s work has been screened and exhibited internationally at Anthology Film Archives, New York, Gabes Cinema Fen Film Festival, Tunisia, Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Leonard & Bina Gallery, Montréal, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Ujazdowski Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, The Mosaic Rooms, London, and MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, among others. In 2021-22 she was a curatorial assistant for the artistic team of documenta fifteen in Kassel, Germany. Abed is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam 2022-24.

LINKS:
NTU Singapore: https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/programme/a-night-we-held-between-by-noor-abed/