In June 2024, Copenhagen Contemporary and the Glyptotek will open a major exhibition with the international artist duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. The joint exhibition takes place at both institutions simultaneously and presents several of the artists’ key works in new iterations.

Since 2007, Basel Abbas (b. 1983) and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (b. 1983) have developed an internationally renowned body of work across video, sound, image, text, installation and performance practices. Through immersive and multi-layered media installations, the artist duo stimulates body and mind as they re-imagine our contemporary landscape of politics and poetics, past and present.

Sound plays a key role in their work. Adapting sampling techniques prevalent in London’s drum and bass scene of the 1990s, Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s soundtracks feature archival material alongside electronic tracks and real-time recordings. The soundscapes are accompanied by striking images layered with quotes from critical and poetic texts in Arabic and English.

The artists often refer to their works as ‘poetics of resistance’ – a resistance that is at once universal and also rooted in the personal backgrounds of the artists, both of whom belong to the Palestinian diaspora. Central to their practice is an ongoing concern for how communities can mobilise hope and create counter-narratives within oppressive political systems.

With their visually impressive and engaging works, Abbas and Abou-Rahme narrate mediated experiences of violence, loss, displacement, hope and community in which new aesthetic and political possibilities can arise.

Regarding the current situation in Palestine and Israel

 The Glyptotek stands firmly against any actions that endanger civilians and their cultural heritage and expresses its deepest solidarity with those who are suffering. As a cultural institution, the Glyptotek is furthermore concerned about the increasing loss of cultural heritage verified by UNESCO. 

The Glyptotek draws attention to the ‘1954 Hague Convention‘ for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, ratified by both Israel and Palestine, which obliges all parties to protect and respect civilians and civilian property, including cultural heritage.

Biography: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme

Basel Abbas (born 1983, Cyprus) and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (born 1983, USA) live and work between Ramallah, Palestine and New York. They studied in the UK in the 2000s, where they met and started their collaboration.

They have had institutional solo exhibitions at, among others, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2023); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022); Common Guild, Glasgow (2022); the Art Institute of Chicago (2021); Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2020); Kunstverein, Hamburg (2018); Art Jameel Project Space Dubai (2017); and the Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2015).

Their work has been included in major international biennials such as the Sharjah Biennial (2023, 2015); Berlin Biennale (2022); Busan Biennial (2018); Gwangju Biennale and São Paulo Biennial (both 2014), Istanbul Biennial (2013), Liverpool Biennial (2010); and Venice Biennale (2009).

Unique collaboration
The exhibition is the second in the series of the three-year collaboration between CC and the Glyptotek titled Hosting Histories: Revisiting Cultural Heritage of the Middle East and Beyond, which seeks to revisit the cultural heritage of antiquity and its significance today.

Read more about the exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary

The three-year exhibition programme at CC and the Glyptotek is generously supported by:

The exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary is further supported by:

A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal

The exhibition at the Glyptotek is further supported by:

Cover photo: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, And yet my mask is powerful Part 1 (2016). Video still. Courtesy of the artists.