Diana Al-Halabi
Artist | Filmmaker
Born in Lebanon in 1990, Diana Al-Halabi is a Rotterdam–Beirut–based interdisciplinary artist working constantly against verticality.
Through an intersectional feminist lens, her practice navigates the entanglement of the personal and the political, challenging top-down structures of power — from the patriarchal gaze and institutional violence to bureaucracy, settler colonialism, migration, and visa regimes. Her recent research, "Famine and Hunger Strikes: Decolonizing the Digestive System," explores the politicization of the digestive system as a form of bottom-up resistance.
Al-Halabi’s work spans film, painting, installation, and writing. Her 2022 film, "The Disaster Cannot Be Contained," screened at international festivals, including IFFR, and won Best Short Film in the national competition at the Beirut Shorts International Film Festival. In 2023, she received the IFFR RTM PITCH Award for her short film "The Battle of Empty Stomachs," which premiered at IFFR 2024, Raindance Film Festival (UK), and Blackstar Film Festival (USA).
Al-Halabi holds an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute (2021) in Rotterdam and completed a fellowship at Ashkal Alwan's Homework Space Program (2018) in Beirut. Her work has been exhibited at Darb 1718 (Cairo), MAO Museum (Torino), Radius CCA (Delft), Garage (Rotterdam), Kiosk (Ghent), Sursock Museum (Beirut), and more. Her practice has been supported by CBK Rotterdam and the Mondriaan Fund. In 2027, Diana will be a resident artist at Rijksacademie in Amsterdam.
UPCOMING
Rijksacademie resident 2027
Exhibitions
2026 moezeum – OP=OP, Rotterdam
2025 ART Rotterdam– Prospects, Mondriaan Fonds, Rotterdam
2025 Something Else Symposium – Darb1718, Cairo
2024 Tashweesh – Beursschouwberg, Brussels
2024 “Wild Summer” – Brutus, Rotterdam
2023 “The Politics of the Armed Lifeboat” – exhibition, Radius CCA, Delft
2023 “At The Table” – group exhibition, Garage, Rotterdam
2023 “Tashattot” – group exhibition, Kiosk, Ghent
2022 “Chewing with Political Teeth” – solo exhibition, Gemaal op Zuid, Rotterdam
2022 “The Disaster Cannot Be Contained” – Over Het IJ Festival, Amsterdam
2022 “C-Veto” – group exhibition, Mistral, Amsterdam
2021 Material Context – Piet Zwart Graduation show, Het Archief, Rotterdam
2021 Print & Play in collaboration with Boijmans Museum, online
2021 ArteEast trilogy exhibition, online
2020 “Aspect Ratio” – Galerie De Jaloezie , FilmHuiskamer, Rotterdam
2020 “Delivered Home with No Eye Contact” – Growing space, solo exhibition,
Rotterdam
2020 Open Studios, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
2018 Open Studios, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut
2016 Salon d’Automne , Sursock Museum, Beirut
Film Festivals & Screenings
“The Battle of Empty Stomachs” 2024 | World premiere IFFR / Raindance Film Festival (UK Premiere), MAO (Torino), BlackStar Film Festival (USA Premiere), Roffa Mon Amour (Rotterdam), Kraljevski Film Festival (Serbia), San Giò Verona Video Festival (Italy)/ Tashweesh Beursschouwburg (Brussels), Tronto Arab Film Festival (Toronto).
“The Disaster Cannot Be Contained” 2022-2024 | “The Disaster Cannot Be Contained” – Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Fetfilm Film Festival (Stockhom), Brutus (Rotterdam), IFFR world premier(Rotterdam), Toronto Arab Film Festival, Morocco International Short Film Festival (Morocco), Off-Screen, Best short film Award for the national competition in Beirut Shorts Film Festival (Beirut).
“Aspect Ratio” 2022 | Cairo Video Festival (Cairo), Shasha Movies: Women’s Revolt program (Online).
Art Residencies
Fellow resident at Rijksacademie | 2027
Summer Lab Residency at RIB, Rotterdam, "The Vertical and Its Reverse" | August 2022
Fellow resident at Ashkal Alwan Homework Space Program, Beirut, Lebanon | 2018
Performances
"The Last Supper or a Class In History" Performance at IDFA Film Festival | November 2021
"Holding Palestine" 7-day performance at PZI | June 2021
Texts, Books, and Publications
The Vertical Gaze - interview conducted and written by Emily Van Driessen for the book In the Absence of Bombs, edited by Pascal Gielen and Bahia Shehab | 2026
Striking Normativity: the Art of Being Surprised, an essay for Sarmad Magazine | 2022
Awards
IFFR RTM PITCH AWARD for the production of "The Battle of Empty Stomachs" short film. | May 2023.
Symbio Jury Honorable mention- Oerol Festival - Project "Do We Eat For Granted?" | 2022
Grants & Scholarships
CBK, I&V Grant | 2025
Mondrian Fonds, Artist Start | 2023
CBK, O&O (Research and Development grant) | 2022
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)
Jury
2025 | Non-EU Student Writing Commission, Page Not Found
2024 | Jury member at the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam
2023 | International Jury at Mostra De Valencia Film Festival- Cinema del Mediterrani Competition
Lectures/ Guest Speaker
Panel talk Artist to Artist at Holland Festival | June 2026
Book Launch of “In the Absence of Bombs” panel talk at ToneelHuis - Antwerp | February 2026
Guest lecturer at Fotodok | November 2025
Guest speaker at VU University- Amsterdam | January 2023
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
Filmmaking workshop – IFFR x Delfshaven Public Library | May 2024
"Living Crisis from a Distance" – Amsterdam Museum | October 2023
"Living Crisis from a Distance" – Tapestry Making for the earthquake relief fund for Turkey and Syria- Melly & fundraised at Het Nieuwe Instituut | March 2023
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
Bachelor in Interior Architecture at The Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon | 2011
Press/Interviews
Brutaliteit in beeld: een gesprek met Diana Al-Halabi – Art Rotterdam
Culture Radio by Operator | IFFR Special | 2024
De macht van een lege maag: IFFR-interview met Diana Al-Halabi | Vers Beton 2024
Experimental Short on Food Insecurity and Migration wins the RTM Pitch Award | IFFR 2023
Film Review by Rosalino Levantino - "The Disaster Cannot Be Contained" - Biamag Cumartesi 2023
Article by Mona Alami- Diana Halabi. La briseuse de tabous- Magazine Le Mensuel | 2019