Studio Grant holder in Stockholm 1 September 2021 – 19 November 2022

Isshaq Albarbary is an artist and researcher born in Beit Jibrin refugee camp, Palestine and currently working between Amsterdam and Bethlehem. His work engages the relation between art, statelessness, and extraterritoriality. His research-based practice deals with authenticity, imitations, camouflage, anonymity, normalization, and naturalization.

Photo: Isshaq Albarbary

While at IASPIS, he will build on his research project on the Israeli ‘musta’ribeen’ – the secret Israeli military units – and the medieval ‘musta’ribeen’ of the Iberian Peninsula – a sect within Andalusian society that lived under Muslim rule. By investigating current and Andalusian scenes, the artist charts the tensions between colonialism and the weaponization of culture.

Isshaq Albarbary holds a Master of Fine Art and Design from HKU, Utrecht, and is presently a member of Urban Front. He was a 2017/2018 fellow at BAK (basis voor actuele kunst), and previously a participant and coordinator of Campus in Camps, an educational program that activated collaborative critical learning environments in Palestinian refugee camps. He is a founding member of Al Maeishah, a communal learning environment where participants explore and practice neighbouring and hospitality as radical political acts. Albarbary has shown his work (carried out collaboratively) at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and the Serralves Museum in Porto. His work has been included in the São Paulo Biennial, the Qalandya International in Palestine, documenta 14 in Kassel, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial.