Biography:
Born in Lebanon; in 1990, Diana Al-Halabi is a Rotterdam-based artist. She pursues an interdisciplinary practice, with a focus on moving image, text, performance, and painting. Al-Halabi’s artistic practice is a continuous protest against hierarchical and patriarchal systems of oppression. Her works often seek to shift grounds and scale down the oppressor through visual language. Through an intersectional feminist lens, Al-Halabi’s practice departs from the personal to the political and tackles notions such as the patriarchal gaze, institutional violence, disabling bureaucracy, settler colonialism, and the visa regime. Her current research is on "Famine and Hunger Strikes: Decolonizing the Digestive System".
Al-Halabi holds an MA in fine arts from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and has completed a one-year fellowship at Ashkal Alwan's Homework space program in Beirut.
Art Residencies
RIB - Summer Lab Residency, "The Vertical and Its Reverse" | August 2022
Film Festivals & Screenings:
Best Short Film Award for the national competition of Beirut Shorts International Film Festival – "The Disaster Cannot Be Contained" | December 2022
W139, "On Scales of Violence: How to Measure a Dictator? [Interrupted]" film, Amsterdam | March 2022
Videoranjersey "Contemporary video art from the Netherlands", "Aspect Ratio" film, Jersey Art Center, Jersey | January 2022
Cairo Video Festival, "Aspect Ratio" film, Cairo | October 2021
Shasha Movies: Women's Revolt program - "Aspect Ratio" film | May 2021
Selected Exhibitions
Gemaal op Zuid - "Chewing with Political Teeth" - Solo exhibition, Rotterdam | December 2022
Salwa Foundation Gathering#3 -"Hungry, Hungry Politicians" reading intervention - Framer Framed, Amsterdam | October 2022
Over Het IJ festival- Zee Container Programma- film premiere, "The Disaster Cannot Be Contained كان يمكن أن لا أكون" | July 2022
Material Context, PZI Graduation show at Het Archief, Rotterdam | July 2021
Print & Play in collaboration with Boijmans Museum, online | May 2021
ArteEast Trilogy exhibition, online | February 2021
Galerie De Jaloezie - FilmHuiskamer, Rotterdam | December 2020
Growing space solo exhibition, Rotterdam | October 2020
Open Studios Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam | February 2020
Open Studios Ashkal Alwan- Beirut | July 2018
Sursock Museum Salon D’Automne- Beirut | November 2016
Performances:
"The Last Supper or a Class In History" Performance at IDFA Film Festival | November 2021
"Holding Palestine" 7 days performance at PZI | June 2021
Published Essays/Articles
Striking Normativity: The Art of Being Surprised - Sarmad Magazine | 2022
Rape culture, Language, and Marwan Habib- Raseef22| 2022
The Pandemic That Travels Through Time- Medium| 2020
The Lebanese Government is Failing to Graduate- Medium| 2020
Lectures/ Guest Speaker
New Radicalisms - Strategies of urgencies, Panel talk, Rotterdam | July 2022
Berlin Korrespondenzen- Break Out, Panel discussion, Gorki Theater, Berlin | June 2022
Guest speaker at VU University- Amsterdam | January 2022
Guest Lecturer at WDKA University- Rotterdam | October 2021
Guest Lecturer at WDKA University- Rotterdam | March 2021
Workshops
The Mental Over-Stretch: Living Crisis from a Distance#1 - Kunst Instituut Melly- Rotterdam | March 2021
The Mental Over-Stretch: Living Crisis from a Distance#2 - Kunst Instituut Melly- Rotterdam | April 2021
The Mental Over-Stretch: Living Crisis from a Distance#3- Kunst Instituut Melly- Rotterdam | April 2021
Education
Masters in Fine Arts at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands | 2021
Fellow resident at Ashkal Alwan Homework Space Program, Beirut, Lebanon | 2018
Bachelor in Interior Architecture at The Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon | 2011
Scholarships/Grants
Van Beek - Donner Stichting | 2020
Schuurman Schimmel - Van Ouderen Stichting | 2020
Bekker -la Bastide -Fonds | 2020
Al Mawred (Culture resource) | 2020
Sultan Al Qassimi (Barjeel Art Foundation) | 2019-2020
Holland Scholarship | 2019
Philipe Jabre Scholarship | 2019
APEAL scholarship | 2019
Ashkal Alwan support grant | 2019
(A very sincere appreciation to all the foundations above that supported my studies, and very warm gratitude to the individuals who privately helped finance my masters in the Netherlands)
Awards
Symbio Jury Honorable mention- Oerol Festival - Project "Do We Eat For Granted?"
Press/Interviews
Article by Mona Alami- Diana Halabi. La briseuse de tabous- Magazine Le Mensuel | 2019