Artist Biography

Mirna Bamieh explores the politics of disappearance and memory production by unpacking the social concerns and limitations of Palestinian communities amid contemporary political dilemmas.

 

With degrees in Visual Arts, Culinary Arts, and Psychology/Sociology, she melds food and storytelling to develop socially engaged work through Palestine Hosting Society, a live art project she founded in 2017. Staging dinner performances and various interventions that draw from food practices as well as the passage of recipes through generations, the project aims to revitalize traditional Palestinian food cultures on the verge of disappearing.

 

Starting in 2019, with a need to look at personal history in relation to the collective, the artist has also been reflecting on the process of fermentation through text, sound, ceramics, drawings, and video works incorporated into site-specific interactive installations. Her current installation project around fermentation is the series Sour Things.

 

Bamieh has performed and exhibited her work at several distinguished venues such as Tate Modern, Kunsthaus Zurich, Sharjah Biennial, MoMA PS1, Aichi Triennale, Tanzquartier, and TBA21, among others. Her work has been featured in major media outlets such as The New York Times, Hyperallergic, AD Middle East, Canvas, Umbigo, Contemporânia, The National, and Art Monthly.

 

She has received several awards such as A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Artist of the Year Award and the Josi Guggenheim Foundation Award. Her works are in several private and public collections including Sharjah Art Foundation, Kunsthaus Zurich, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, and Institut Du Monde Arabe.