On view in Emerson College’s Media Art Gallery February 4 through March 22, 2025
Announcement
Boston, MA —
Emerson Contemporary is proud to present Entire Nations Are Built on Fairy Tales, a free exhibition featuring multi-channel films and a dramatic sculptural installation by Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind that examine memory, history, and grief. Featured in the Media Art Gallery is As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night, an Arabic-language opera on loss, mourning and inherited trauma, accompanied by a dramatic sculptural installation and a two-channel science fiction film, In Vitro. A special one-night screening of the science fiction film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2016) and their latest documentary Familiar Phantoms (2023) will augment the exhibition.
In their practice, Sansour and Lind use striking visuals and dramatic fiction as an imaginary mode to speak to the present in a manner that diffracts the highly charged geo-political discourse surrounding present-day Palestine. The artists are deeply philosophical and thoughtful in how they consider a complex political situation, while transcending our present moment to connect to universal experiences of grief and loss. By "time traveling" to both the faraway past and fictionalized futures, this exhibition explores how cinematic storytelling can open up new spaces for empathy and foster understanding of a shared human experience.
This exhibition is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Programming
Film Screening + Artist Conversation
Come view In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2016) and Familiar Phantoms (2023). Filmmakers Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind will be in conversation with Emerson Assistant Professor and Filmmaker Julia Halperin afterwards. Film is co-presented with the RPM Film Festival and the Salem Film Fest.
- Date: Tuesday, February 4, 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m.
- Location: Bright Family Screening Room, 559 Washington St. Boston, MA, 02111
- RSVP required for tickets (Eventbrite)
Artist Reception + Gallery Talk
with Larissa Sansour, Søren Lind and exhibition curator Dr. Leonie Bradbury
- Date: Wednesday, February 5, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.; talk starts at 6:00 p.m.
- Location: Media Art Gallery, 25 Avery Street, Boston, MA 02111
Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night, production still, 2022
About the Artists
Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind are an artist duo who have collaborated on various films. They live and work in London. What underscores the significance of their work in the current context is the relationship between memory, trauma and the present to envision a more peaceful future. In 2019 they represented Denmark at the 58th Venice Biennale. Born in East Jerusalem and raised in Bethlehem, Larissa Sansour (PS/DK) studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Amos Rex, Whitworth Gallery in Manchester, KINDL in Berlin, Copenhagen Contemporary in Denmark and Dar El-Nimer in Beirut. Soren Lind (DK) is a Danish author and director and visual artist with a background in philosophy. Lind wrote books on mind, language, and understanding before turning to art, film, and fiction. Lind screens and exhibits his films at museums, galleries, and film festivals worldwide.
About Emerson Contemporary
Emerson Contemporary is the College’s platform for showcasing contemporary visual art. It is focused on presenting living artists, their ideas, experiments and creative practices in the areas of media art, performance art and emergent technologies, while critically examining these works in their social context.
About the College
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has approximately 4,161 undergraduates and 554 graduate students from across the United States and nearly 70 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs at Emerson Los Angeles, located in Hollywood, and at its 14th-century castle, in the Netherlands. Additionally, there are opportunities to study in Washington, DC, London, China, the Czech Republic, Spain, Austria, Greece, France, Ireland, Mexico, Cuba, England, and South Africa. The College has an active network of 51,000+ alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit emerson.edu.
For more information contact
Rosemary Lavery