Bearing Bodies II
2021
Coloured plaster, various local plants, and seeds
Dimensions variable
Artist and filmmaker Mahmoud El Safadi (b. 1987) examines notions of urbanism and its intersection with the natural world. His work employs video, photography, and installation to question our material and metaphysical relationship to familiar spaces, negotiating the boundaries between nature and culture, between the natural and the non-natural. El Safadi’s work has been presented in exhibitions at the Pattison Outdoor Billboard Public Art Project, Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver, Canada (2021); March Project, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE (2017); 32nd Salon d’Automne, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon (2016); 4th Aflam International Festival of Arab Cinema, Marseille, France (2016); In the heart of the heart of another country, ArtBOX, Thessaloniki, Greece and Beirut (2016); Immersion, Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art, East Jerusalem, Palestine (2016); Exposure 7: Mobility, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2015); and A Museum of Immortality, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon (2014). El Safadi was a fellow in Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program in 2014-2015. He holds a BFA in film and video production, new media, and history from York University, Toronto, Canada (2010).