Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige

Biography

In their collaborative work as artists and filmmakers, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige interrogate the fabrication of images and the construction of imaginaries. Grounded by indepth research and often featuring personal or political documents, the pair’s artistic practice traces forgotten, erased or invisible histories, especially those relating to their native Lebanon. Their projects have ranged from investigating disappearances during the Lebanese Civil War to rediscovering a forgotten space project from the 1960s to giving materiality to internet scams and examining the archeological and geological underground of cities.
Their multiawarded feature and documentary films include Memory Box (2021); ISMYRNA (2016); The Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of The Lebanese Space Race (2012), Je Veux Voir (I Want To See) (2008), A Perfect Day (2005); Ashes (2003); Khiam 2000–2007 (2008); and Around the Pink House (1999). Several retrospectives of their films have been made in museums or festivals as Tate Modern Art (London), MOMA (New York), Flaherty Seminar (New York), Sevilla film Festival, Torino film festival….
The artists have participated in numerous solo exhibitions including shows at Hauss der Kunst (Munich), Jeu de paume (Paris), Musée d’art Moderne (Paris), The Power Plant (Toronto), Acropolis Museum, (Athens), IVAM (Valencia), Sharjah art Foundation and others. Their work has also been exhibited in several group exhibitions and numerous biennales as Venise, Sharjah, Istanbul, Lyon, Taipei, Kochi –among many more.
Hadjithomas and Joreige are the authors of several publications, including Two Suns in a Sunset, (Koenig Books, 2016); The Rumors of The World: Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet (Sternberg Press, 2015), Monography ( JRP RIngier ,)2013) and artists books such as Latent images (Rosascape, 2010) and Beirut, Urban Fictions (Mind the Gap, 1997).

The awards won by the artist duo include the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2017) and more than 70 awards for their films.

Their artworks are part of major private and public collections including the MAMCO (Geneva), FNAC (France), Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), MCA (Chicago), British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum (London).


SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 10 and 15 (2011, 2023)

Unsettled Objects (2021)