
Photo : Joerg Lohse, © Emily Jacir, permission de | courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York
How do we continue to exist? This is a question raised by Guy Mannes-Abbott in his chapter on the oeuvre of Emily Jacir for Dissonant Archives: Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East (2015). For artists and people who live and work in conflict zones, there is a complex relationship between survival and methodology that results in imaginative and generative cultural production, in spite of oppressive conditions. Arguably, this question — of methods and resilience — speaks directly to Jacir’s artistic practice, which challenges and investigates dominant forms of power.