Artist Maha Maamoun screens her recent video works, which consider the capacity of images to function critically in a variety of political, social, and cultural contexts. Maamoun will be in conversation with artist, writer, and curator Ala Younis, who has organized “An Index of Tensional and Unintentional Love of Land” on the Fifth Floor as part of “Here and Elsewhere.”

BIOS
Maha Maamoun
b. 1972 California; lives in Cairo, Egypt
In mining a range of images from everyday life and popular culture, Maha Maamoun’s works in photography and video underscore the many ways in which visual representations can carry a political charge or influence social dynamics. Maamoun’s work has been shown in exhibitions and screenings at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, PhotoCairo, Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo, Tate Modern, London, Venice Biennale of Architecture, the International Center of Photography, New York, DAK’ART, Senegal, African Photography Biennial, Bamako, Mali. She was co-curator of PhotoCairo3, an International Visual Arts festival in Cairo, and assistant curator for Meeting Points 5, an International Multidisciplinary Contemporary arts festival in Berlin. Maamoun is cofounder of Kayfa-ta, a nonprofit Arabic publishing initiative and founding member of Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo.

Ala Younis
b. 1974 Kuwait City, Kuwait; lives in Amman, Jordan
Ala Younis is an artist, writer, and curator whose works address the ways in which historical events shape not only the lives of individuals, but also entire generations. Many of her videos and installations combine found objects and archival footage, reflecting her long-term research into political leaders, cultural figures, utopian architecture or art projects, and the manifold legacies of conflicts and political struggles in the Arab world. Younis has exhibited internationally, including at the New Museum, in “The Ungovernables,” Istanbul Biennial, Darat Al Funun, Jordan, Al Ma’mal Foundation, Palestine, and Townhouse Gallery, Cairo. Select curated projects by Younis have been held at Mathaf’s Project Space, Doha, Global Art Forum, Dubai, the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Akademie der Kunst, Berlin. Younis also has also curated the nomadic museum collection Museum of Manufactured Response to Absence and is cofounder of Kayfa-ta.