Whole in the Wall > Solo Exhibition by Artist Khalid Jarrar > @AyyamGallery London > June 20th -August 3rd 2013

'Football' > 2012 > Concrete from wall
Courtesy the artist and Ayyam Gallery

Inspired by everyday events and experiences, Jarrar’s practice incorporates performance,  video, photography and sculpture to document his observations on life  in  an occupied Palestine. The restrictions imposed on him and his fellow citizens have become the catalyst and subject of his occasionally satirical artistic output.


One of the highlights of the exhibition is an  installation  which will see  Jarrar construct an imposing  concrete wall  extending along the  length  of the  gallery; confronting the viewer  immediately upon entering the  space. In order to pass through the wall visitors will have to clamber through a hole shaped like Palestine - an allegory for the process endured by people crossing the apartheid wall in the West Bank in order to reach their homes in Palestine.

From the series 'Whole in the Wall' > 2013
Courtesy the artist and Ayyam Gallery

'Olive Tree Stump' > 2013
Halved olive tree and concrete 70 x 40 x 27 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Ayyam Gallery

Alongside this installation, Jarrar will show a series of  video works and  new and recent  concrete sculptures based on sporting paraphernalia: footballs, volleyballs, basketballs  and ping pong rackets. These are formed from materials secretly chiseled by the artist from the separation wall. By making reference to the footballs left by the wall by children who use the area  as a site for their games,  and by  repurposing  this found material, Jarrar seeks to provoke a dialogue about possession and reclamation.


Other recent projects include Live and Work in Palestine (2011 - present) - an entry stamp Jarrar created for the ‘State of Palestine’, which  he then stamped into the passports of tourists entering Ramallah. Designed to encourage a collaboration with his audience, the project enabled them to formally record their visit to a ‘stateless’ place - a symbolic gesture to interrogate the gap between an aspirational state and an actualised one.  Jarrar has since performed this action in other countries, including the  at the  Pompidou in Paris and the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, as well as the 2012 Berlin Biennale; there Jarrar pointed to ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ as a key source of inspiration for the touring project.


A former captain of the Palestinian Presidential Guard, Jarrar is  familiar with bureaucracy, politics, military discipline, and affairs of the state.  This previous career  informs his  artistic practice, and much of his work has focused on the action of breaking free from disciplinary modes of being  and subverting existing codes of conduct. Whilst explicitly addressing  the ownership of land and displacement of people, Jarrar treads carefully but with authority, and offers a potent alternative account of life in an occupied Palestine.

Born in Jenin in 1976, Khaled Jarrar lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine. Recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Guy Bartschi, Geneva (2013); the Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013); the NEWTOPIA: The State of Human Rights Contemporary Arts  in Mechelen and Brussels (2012); Galerie Polaris, Paris (2012); Al-Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah (2009); Al-Mahatta Gallery, Ramallah (2007); International Academy of Art Palestine, Ramallah (2007). Recent group exhibitions include at the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012); 52nd October Salon, Belgrade (2011); Al-Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem (2010); London Film Festival, London (2010);  and the Instant Video Festival, Marseille (2009).