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Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. Production still from May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth. 2020–ongoing. Courtesy the artists
Exhibition
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme: May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth
23 Apr 2022 – 26 Jun 2022
Regular hours
- Saturday
- 10:30 – 19:00
- Sunday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Monday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Tuesday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Wednesday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Thursday
- 10:30 – 17:30
- Friday
- 10:30 – 17:30
Cost of entry
Adults: $25 (Concessions available)
Address
- 11 West 53 Street
- New York
New York - NY 10019
- United States
Travel Information
- From the east side of Manhattan M1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 to 53rd Street From the west side of Manhattan M50 cross-town to 50th Street. Proceed to 53rd Street.
- From the east side of Manhattan 6 train to 51st Street, transfer to the E or M train; one stop to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue From the west side of Manhattan E or M train to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, or B, D, or F train to 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme’s May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth (2020–ongoing) examines how individuals bear witness to experiences of violence, loss, displacement, and forced migration.
About
Since the early 2010s, Abbas and Abou-Rahme have collected online recordings of everyday people singing and dancing in communal spaces in Iraq, Palestine, and Syria. The work brings digital traces of these performing bodies together with new performances conceived by the artists, a dancer, and a group of musicians in Ramallah’s cultural underground. According to Abbas and Abou-Rahme, through circulation of the footage, “these fractured communities are resisting their own erasure and laying claim to space, self, and collectivity once more.”
This evolving project, co-commissioned by MoMA and Dia Art Foundation, will be presented as an online platform and physical exhibition. The first part, titled Postscript: after everything is extracted, will launch on December 10, 2020, as part of Dia’s Artist Web Projects Series. In summer 2021, Dia’s online platform will be updated with the artists’ extensive collection of found online recordings and the original performances. The forthcoming exhibition in MoMA’s Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio will bring the footage into the gallery through a multichannel sound and video installation.
May amnesia never kiss us on the mouth considers performance—whether in the form of song, spoken word, dance, or gesture—as a political act at a time marked by myriad forms of violence against entire communities.
The artists gratefully acknowledge TBA21.
