In Nothing is lost except nothing at all except what is not had, Nour Bishouty explores questions around land, indigeneity, and history while questioning the desire for knowledge as a colonial impulse. Bishouty’s work impresses counter-gestures embodied in a poetic practice of extracting, exposing, providing, and withholding information. The artist has invited Jumana Manna and Monica Basbous to engage in a conversation elaborating on those questions and others related to their respective artistic practice.
Nour Bishouty (Toronto) is a multidisciplinary artist working in a range of media including works on paper, digital images, sculpture, video, and writing. Her practice engages familial and material narratives to explore colonial legacies and pose questions around dissonance, opacity, legibility, and the generative possibilities of misunderstanding.
Monica Basbous (Beirut) is an architect, researcher and educator. Her work investigates the nexus of spatiality, knowledge production and representation using critical and speculative frameworks.
Jumana Manna (Berlin) is a visual artist working primarily with film and sculpture. Her work explores how power is articulated through relationships, often focusing on the body and on materiality in relation to narratives of nationalism and histories of place.
