Screening room

We Began by Measuring Distance

Author:
Basma al-Sharif: Post Date:
14 Oct 2025

An anonymous group of cartographers set out to fill their time by measuring distance. Innocent measurements become political, drawing attention to how image and sound communicate history, tragedy, and the complication of Palestinian nationalism. We Began By Measuring Distance reveals an ultimate disenchantment with facts, exploring what happens when the visual fails to communicate the tragic.

Basma al-Sharif is a Palestinian artist/filmmaker who explores cyclical political histories and conflicts. In films and installations that move backward and forward in history, between place and non-place, she confronts the legacy of colonialism through satirical, immersive, and lyrical works. She received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007, was a resident of the Fondazione Antonio Ratti in 2009, the Pavillon Neuflize OBC at the Palais de Tokyo in 2014-15. She received a Jury prize at the Sharjah Biennial in 2009, was awarded a Visual Arts of the Fundación Botín in 2010, Mophradat’s Consortium Commissions in 2018, she was a fellow of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant Programme for 2022-2023 and was nominated for the Prix Aware for 2024. Al-Sharif’s major exhibitions include shows with Pompidou Metz, De Appel, the Ruttenberg Contemporary Photography Series for the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago, Modern Mondays at MOMA, CCA Glasgow, SALT Galata, the Whitney Biennial, the New Museum, Berlin Documentary Forum, and Manifesta 8. Her films have screened in the international film festivals of Locarno, Berlin, Mar del Plata, Milan, London, Toronto, New York, Montreal, and Yamagata amongst others. Basma is based in Berlin and represented by Galerie Imane Farés in Paris.

- Mission Statement
3. Who Are Our Audiences, Users, Protagonists?
Jonas Staal, Nadja Argyropoulou, Basma al-Sharif
- Writing Gaza
Writing Gaza
Omar Berrada & Shivangi Mariam Raj

We Began by Measuring Distance

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