Home Away from Home, 2018
Installation view Aperture Gallery, New York
Image Courtesy Aperture
Taysir Batniji (b.1966 in Gaza Palestine) lives and works between Paris and Palestine.
Batniji first left Gaza at 25 years old, and has traveled intermittently between his current home of Paris and his native Palestine. His displacement between two cities and two cultures has a strong influence on his work and artistic identity; a person and a practice within and without a country, a conflict, and a memory. He has become one of Palestine’s leading conceptual artists.
He received his BFA from Al Najah University. He went on to study in Italy and France. The artist has had solo exhibitions at Aperture Foundation, New York (2018); Contemporary Art Space André Malraux, France (2016); Espace Culturel Robert de Lamanon, Marseille (2013); La BF15, Lyon (2012); Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva (2007); and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2004).
Batniji has been included in group shows at the La Kunsthalle Mulhouse - Center for Contemporary Art, France (2017); Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany (2017); Valencia Institute of Modern Art, Spain (2016); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2012); Villa Medici (Rome, 2012) CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2012); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2009); as well as the Venice Biennial (2003, 2009 & 2011) and the Istanbul Biennial (2012). His work is also a part of major collections such as Georges Pompidou, FNAC, France, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Fondation Louis Vuitton, among others.
Education
Selected Solo Exhibitions
Home Away from Home, Aperture Foundation, New York, USA
Fathers, CCF of Algiers, Algeria
Background Noise, La Compagnie, Marseille, France
Fathers, Museum of Art and History, Geneva, Switzerland
Selected Group Exhibitions
A World Not Ours, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse - Center for Contemporary Art, France
Kunsten Festival Watou, Belgium
Between Myth and Fright. The Mediterranean as conflict, Valencia Institute of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain
Dream of another world, Centre D’Histoire, Lyon, France
Uncertain States, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Germany
BNLMTL, L’avenir, Biennial of Montreal, Canada
Recreational Purpose, Bahrain National Museum, Manama, Bahrain
Les Horizons, La Criée Art Center, Rennes, France
Keep Your Eye on the Wall, Palestinian Landscapes, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait
Customs Made: Quotidian Practices and Everyday Rituals, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE
Thanks for Writing, 601 Artspace, New York, USA
Arab Contemporary: Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum Of Modern Art, Denmark
A Guest Without A Host Is A Ghost, CIC, Cairo, Egypt
Summa Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
Here, Elsewhere, Friche La Belle De Mai, Tour-Panorama, Marseille, France
Forays. Self-interest systems - mechanisms of looting, Fotohof Salzburg, Germany
Systems and Patterns, International of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
When Attitudes Became Form Become Attitudes, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
Newtopia: The state of human rights, Cultuurcentrum Mechelen, Belgium
Making History, Frankfurter Kunstverein, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, MMK Zollamt, Germany
State of Transit, Open Systems, Zentrum für Kunstprojekte, Vienna, Austria
Istanbul Biennial 12, Istanbul, Turkey
The Future of a Promise, 54th Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy
Jerusalem Show III: The Jerusalem Syndrome, Al-Ma’mal Foundation, Jerusalem
Palestine c / o Venice, 53rd Venice Biennale, La Giudecca, Venice, Italy
Palestine, La création dans tous ses états, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Paris Photo, Paris, France
Minimum Security, The Bank, Paris, France
Our Realities, The Neighborhood, Contemporary Art Center of Quimper, France
1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece
Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change, Sharjah Biennial 8, Sharjah, UAE
New Territories, Belfry, Stadshallen, Bruges, Belgium
Middle East News, On Culture and Politics, HAU, Berlin, Germany
Awards
Works in Public Collections: