“I aim to bring together struggles that are fighting for the same issue despite taking place in disparate geographies. Film has become a vessel for these discussions, and in fact the presence of the camera itself adds a certain self-awareness to the conversation.”

1. BIOGRAPHY

Marwa Arsanios is an artist, filmmaker and researcher whose work can take the form of installation, performance and moving image. She reconsiders the political development of the second half of the XXth century from a contemporary perspective, focusing on gender relations, collectivism, urbanism and industrialization. In the past nine years Arsanios has been attempting to think about these questions from a materialist perspective with different feminist movements that are in a struggle for taking back their land. She tries to look at questions of property, law, economy and ecology from specific plots of land, while focusing on the histories of the commons in the levant region. She has been part of artist collectives and initiatives, the most recent being the legal communalisation of a land in the North Lebanon through its transformation to a Mashaa. Arsanios was a researcher in the Fine Art Department at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2010–12). She completed a PhD at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna.Several solo exhibitions have been dedicated to her work: Artium, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2025); Fondazione Sandretto, Turin (2025); BAK, Utrecht (2024); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2024); Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023); Mosaïc Rooms, London (2022); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Center (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2016); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015); and Art in General, New York (2015).

Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions including: Documenta 15, Kassel (2022); 5th Mardin Bienali (2022); Sydney Biennial Film Program (2022); Kunsthalle Münster (2021); 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021); 11th Berlin Biennale (2020); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2020); 2nd Lahore Biennale (2020); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); 1st Sharjah Architecture Triennial (2019); SF Moma, San Francisco (2019); 1st Warsaw Biennial (2019); 14th Sharjah Biennale (2019); 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018); Nottingham Contemporary (2017); MAXXI, Rome (2017); Sursock Museum, Beirut (2016); Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2016); Thessaloniki Biennial (2015); Home Works Forum, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2010, 2013, 2015); New Museum, New York (2014); 55th Venice Biennial (2013); M HKA, Antwerp (2013); In Other Words, nGbK, Berlin (2012); or the 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). Her films have been screened at MoMA, New York (2023); School of Art Institute, Chicago (2023); FID Marseille (2015, 2019, 2022); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011, 2017, 2022); Cinéma du Réel, Paris (2021); Rotterdam Film Festival (2021); EMAF, Osnabrück (2021); Film Fest, Hamburg (2020); State of Concept, Athens (2020); tiff, Toronto (2019); RIDM, Montreal (2019); Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (2019, 2023); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017); Berlin International Film Festival (2010, 2015); and e-flux storefront, New York (2009). She received the Georges de Beauregard International Prize at FID Marseille (2019), the Special Prize of the Pinchuk Future Generation Art Prize (2012), and was nominated for the Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize (2017) and the Han Nefkens Foundation Award (2014). She was awarded the Akademie Schloss Solitude scholarship in Stuttgart in 2014 and the Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo Arts and Space in 2010. She is a co-founder of the 98weeks Research Project.