Yazan Al-Khalili - Margins

17 – 25 April 2008
Urban and suburban areas­­ are full of ambiguous spaces, where the relationship between architecture and the environment is not one of obvious harmony, where the space feels unresolved or unsettling. Working with the urban environment as a landscape, Yazan Al-Khalili’s exhibition, Margins (work in progress), captured the emergent morphology of the city, whilst providing focus for the undefined, transitional spaces, which lie in-between two conurbations.

As part of Margins, Urban Impressions was an open and intimate discussion between researcher and photographer Paul Halliday (Goldsmiths University), visual artist Leo Asemota and current Delfina Foundation artist-in-residence Yazan Al-Khalili.

Exploring the contemporary challenges of street photography, Urban Impressions reflected upon the construction of personal narratives of urban space through the photographic lens, whilst assessing the possibilities offered by the medium.

La Tierra de Nadie

3-6 April 2008, Mapfre Hay Festival Alhambra, Granada, Spain.
Marking the launch of Delfina Foundation’s Commissioning Creative Collaborations programme, La Tierra de Nadie (2008), a multi-screen video installation, was commissioned especially for the Mapfre Hay Festival Alhambra. Shot in the Alhambra, La Tierra de Nadie was the outcome of a cross-discipline collaboration, between three critically acclaimed international artists: Eugenio Ampudia, one of the most accomplished video and digital-based artists in Spain, Yazan Al-Khalili, a photographer among the new generation of visual artists emerging from Palestine, and Noel Wallace, a British choreographer and dancer who has danced with the English National Ballet, the Houston Ballet and Béjart Ballet.

For the first time ever, a multi-screen video installation was created and presented in the Alhambra with the generous support of the Patronato of the Alhambra. La Tierra de Nadie explored the symbolism of the millennial palace’s architecture, and the particular significance of the narrow strip of land, which, without ownership or identity, lies between the western-built Carlos V Palace and the Islamic-inspired Nasrides Palace. It investigated, through the metaphor of the “No Man’s Land” issues such as the tension between world heritage and tourism, individual artistic practice and collaboration, public and private space, and East and West perspectives on the historical significance of the Alhambra.

About La Tierra de Nadie

Produced by Dillwyn Smith and Aaron Cezar
Director of Photography: Pedro Albornoz 
Editor / Post-production: Guillem Bayo 
Sound: Juan Manuel Artero Fernández-Montesinos 
Editor: Daniel Garcia Isidoro 
Camera: Enrique F. Luaces 
Camera: Miguel Perez Olmo 
Set design: Javier Valsco 

La Tierra de Nadie was made possible thanks to the support of:
Junta de Andalucia
Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife
Fundacion Rodriguez Acosta
Festival Internacional de Jovenes Realisadores Granada
Junta de Andalucia – Filmoteca de Andalucia
Junta de Andalucia – Biblioteca de Andalucia
Townhouse Gallery (Cairo)
Republica Tunecina – Embajada de Tunez en Espana
London Kurdish Film Festival