Emily Jacir facts for kids

Emily Jacir (Arabic: أملي جاسر) is a Palestinian artist and filmmaker. She lives and works in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Early Life and Learning

Emily Jacir grew up in Saudi Arabia. She went to high school in Italy. Later, she studied art at the University of Dallas and the Memphis College of Art. She spends her time living in both New York City and Bethlehem.

Her Art and Career

Emily Jacir is an artist who uses many different ways to create art. She is very interested in how things change, how people stand up for themselves, and stories from history that are often not told. She uses film, photography, installations, performances, video, writing, and sound in her work.

Her art often explores ideas about people being forced to leave their homes, living in new places, and how they resist difficult situations. She often focuses on these topics in the context of the Palestinian experience.

Since 1994, Emily Jacir has shown her art in many places. These include cities across North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. She has had her own art shows in New York City, Los Angeles, Ramallah, Beirut, London, and Linz.

Helping the Art Scene Grow

Since 1999, Emily Jacir has been very active in building the art community in Ramallah. She has worked with important art groups like the A. M. Qattan Foundation and the Al Ma'mal Foundation for Contemporary Art. She also helped with projects like Birzeit University's Virtual Art Gallery. In 2002, she started and organized the first International Video Festival in Ramallah.

She also put together a collection of short films called "Palestinian Revolution Cinema (1968–1982)." This collection traveled to different places in 2007. Between 2000 and 2002, she organized several Arab film programs in New York City. This included the first Palestinian Film Festival in 2002.

Teaching and New Projects

Emily Jacir has been a full-time professor at the International Academy of Art Palestine since it opened in 2006. She also helped guide the school's academic plans until 2012. She led the first year of the Ashkal Alwan Home Workspace Program in Beirut from 2011 to 2012. She also helped create the program's lessons and activities.

She is the founder of Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research. This is located in her family's old home in Bethlehem. It works as both a community center and a place for modern art.

In February 2023, Emily Jacir worked with artist Baha Hilo. They created a project called "Preserve." This project focused on taking care of and fixing the olive terraces at Dar Jacir. The Center for Human Rights and the Arts supported this important work.

Awards and Recognitions

Emily Jacir has received many important awards for her art:

• In 2007, she won the Golden Lion for artists under 40 at the 52nd Venice Biennale. She won for her art that explores the idea of being in exile and the Palestinian situation.
• She received the 2007 Prince Claus Award. This award is given to artists whose work deals with the effects of conflict.
• In 2008, she won the Hugo Boss Prize from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The judges said she won for her careful and thoughtful art. Her work, which includes photos, videos, performances, and installations, shows what it's like to live in a culture affected by war and displacement.
• She was the Visual Arts winner of the 2011 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.
• In 2015, she received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize Fellow in Visual Arts.
• In 2018, she won the "Curator of the Young Artist of the Year" award from the A. M. Qattan Foundation.
• In 2019, she gave the Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton University. Her talk was titled "Where We Come From."
• In 2023, she received an American Academy Arts and Letters Award in Art.
• Also in 2023, she was given an honorary doctorate in art and design by the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
• In 2024, she received the Minimum Prize from Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy.

Major Artworks

Memorial to 418 Palestinian Villages (2001)

For this project, Emily Jacir invited people to embroider a refugee tent. They sewed the names of Palestinian villages that were affected by events in 1948. People from many different backgrounds helped with this art piece.

The artwork is meant to be a sad but important reminder of a difficult time. It shows a tragedy that needs to be remembered and understood.

Where We Come From (2001-2003)

Emily Jacir has an American passport, which allows her to travel more freely. She asked over 30 Palestinians living in different places: "If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?"

She collected their wishes and then carried them out herself. These tasks included things like playing football, eating local foods, paying bills, visiting a grave, or meeting family. She used her passport to travel between areas, which most Palestinians cannot do.

The finished artwork showed the requests in both Arabic and English. It also described where the person lived and their travel challenges. Next to the text were photos of Emily Jacir completing the tasks. This artwork showed how difficult travel can be for many people. It was praised by many art critics and was even reviewed by Edward Said. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art later bought this artwork.

Crossing Surda (2003)

This artwork came from a personal experience Emily Jacir had. She was filming her feet at a checkpoint when a soldier threatened her. She said that if this scary event hadn't happened, this art piece would not exist.

Accumulations (2005)

Critics have praised Emily Jacir's ability to connect personal experiences to bigger ideas about identity. They also noted how she brings new life to classic concept art.

Material for a Film (2005-ongoing)

In this ongoing project, Emily Jacir explores the life of Wael Zuaiter. He was a Palestinian writer living in Rome who was killed in 1972. He was mistakenly thought to be involved in the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Emily Jacir gathered many items related to his life. These include photographs, books, music, letters, and interviews. She even included a clip from a Pink Panther film where he had a small part. This installation helps to bring his story to life.

Some critics have found this work very powerful. Others have had different opinions, with some saying it was not as strong as her other works.

stazione (2009)

In 2009, Emily Jacir was part of the Venice Biennale, a big art exhibition. She planned a public art project for Venice. Her idea was to add Arabic names to the water bus stops along the Grand Canal. This would make the route bilingual, showing the historical connections between Venice and Arab cultures.

However, the Venice City Authorities stopped her project. They did not allow it to happen. It was reported that the water bus company received pressure from an "outside source" to cancel the project for political reasons. This meant her artwork was significant because it was not allowed to be seen.

Where Her Work Is Shown

Museums

Emily Jacir's art has been shown in many famous museums around the world, including:

• CCS Hessel Museum of Contemporary Art at Bard College
• Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University
• Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah
• Modern Art Oxford
• Musee cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne
• Museum of Modern Art in New York
• Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco
• Whitechapel Gallery
• Whitney Museum of American Art

Biennales

Her work has also been featured in major international art exhibitions called biennales:

• Venice Biennale (2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
• Sydney Biennale (2006)
• Sharjah Biennial (2005, 2011)
• Whitney Biennial (2004)
• Gwangju Biennale (2004)
• Istanbul Biennial (2003)
• dOCUMENTA (13) (2012)

See also

In Spanish: Emily Jacir para niños