Exhibitions > Entire Nations Are Built on Fairy Tales

Entire Nations Are Built on Fairy Tales: Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind
February 4 - March 22, 2025

This exhibition features the multi-channel film and large scale custom sculptural installation of a meditative reflection pool by Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind called As If No Misfortune Had Occurred in the Night and a gallery presentation of the film In Vitro. Accompanied by a special, one night screening of the science fiction film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2016) and their latest documentary Familiar Phantoms (2023).
Sansour and Lind are deeply philosophical and thoughtful in how their work addresses the complex political situation of present-day Palestine, while transcending our current contentious moment to connect to a universal experience of love and loss across time and peoples. This exhibition explores how cinematic storytelling can open up new spaces for empathy and increased understanding of a shared human experience.
The artists were invited to Boston for a multi-day residency in February 2025 to give the keynote lecture on the transformative power of visual storytelling and poetic expression to reimagine the space of trauma within the broader context of diasporic art practices. I produced a limited edition publication, the first academic exhibition catalog of the artists’ work to date. Middle Eastern art scholar Dr. Rachel Winter provided an essay placing Sansour and Lind’s work in the larger context of contemporary Middle Eastern art.

Funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.