Lina Issa
Bio
Lina Issa (Lebanon, 1981) is an artist based in Amsterdam. Her work revolves around issues of place, otherness, kinesthetic embodied memory, and the performativity of (cultural) identity.Her experience as a migrant and her longing to meet ‘the other’ in herself and out there, inform and inspire her artistic practice to a great degree. The focus in her work lies mainly on the physical aspect of displacement as she literally places herself in different situations. By doing that, Lina says: “I create conditions for relations to unfold. I make room for imagined and real experiences and narratives to emerge, to be performed and to be shared. There, I encounter different fictive and real subjectivities. And I question how we imagine, construct and (re)enact our subjectivity?” Her work process usually takes the form of a social event- a performance, a workshop or a happening. The artwork often carries a tension between the personal and the universal, and could take different forms like performance, video, photos, and text.
Prior to the Piet Zwart Institute| Masters in Art, Rotterdam (’05-’06) she was a researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academy, Maastricht (‘03-‘05) and got a degree in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut (’98-’02) Recent projects include: ‘11 | Secret Powers for Identity Security and Self-Respect in Troubling Times, performance in collaboration with Maya Bekan, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Mustapha/Vincenzo, video, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück Stockholm ’10 | What if, if I take your place?, performance/text, The text as an Act, artist talk, with the philosopher Cecilia Sjoholm, Iaspis. Resonant Memories, screening and workshop, Konstfack. In Pursuit of New Beginnings, text, part of the collective text New Beginnings, edited by Sinziana Ravini. Amsterdam ’10 | Memories of White, and 15-Love, video works, solo exhibition, De Balie. Where We Are Not, reading/performance, at the Edward Said: Academics, Activism, Art- symposium, University of Amsterdam.
Where We Are Not, reading/performance in collaboration with Aitana Cordero,Beirut ’09, Amsterdam ’08, London and Paris ’07. Finding a ‘now’ to inhabit: between the performative in life and professional practice, text, Al Raida issue ‘Women in the Performing Arts’, Beirut ’09.
Website
http://linaissa.blogspot.com/CV
Beirut, Lebanon, 1981Living and working in Amsterdam since 2003
Education
- 2005-2006 Masters in Visual Arts, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam
- 2003-2004 Researcher in Fine Arts, Jan Van Eyck Academy, Maastricht
- 1998-2002 Bachelor in Graphic Design, American University of Beirut
Art Residency
- Nov ’09- Feb ‘10, Iaspis, Stockholm
- 8-22 Feb ’11, Kirunatopia project, Kiruna, Sweden
Performances
2011
- Secret Powers for Identity Security and Self-Respect in Troubling Times, collaboration with Maya Bekan, The EYE, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
-
What if, if I take your place? Iaspis, Stockholm
- Where We Are Not, LAU Theater festival, Beirut
- Where We Are Not, Project Perform festival, Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
- Where We Are Not, Literature festival, OBA/ public library, Amsterdam
- ’A ticket to a place that became a person…’, Over Het IJ Festival, Amsterdam
- Where We Are Not, The Facility Symposium 3, Metropolitan University, London
- Where We Are Not, “Il faut brûler Pour Briller” festival, Espace d´art Contemporain Eugène Beadouin, Paris
- Where We Are Not, Tent, Rotterdam
- ’A ticket to a place that became a person…’, location theatre, Over Het IJ Festival,Amsterdam
- Where We Are Not, Tent, Rotterdam
- Still Still in The City: explorations behind closed eyes, public interventions in public space, Rotterdam
- La Chispa: Flamenco performance, Muiderpoort Theatre, Amsterdam
- 4-temporary, Flamenco/Tap dance performance,Luxor Theatre, Heerlen, NL
- Singular Strategies, choreographer Barbara Gene,DAS ARTS Institute, Amsterdam
- Untitled-Spaces 2, intervention in Karin Janssen's exhibition, De Effenaar Cafe, Eindhoven, NL
- 5-minute instruction piece, Radio program, JVE, Maastricht, NL
- La Chispa: Flamenco performance, Muiderpoort Theatre, Amsterdam
- Untitled-Spaces, with 9-professional dancers, Entre-Deux shopping center, Maastricht, NL
Festivals
- 2011 Mustapha/Vincenzo, video, European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück
Lectures - Artist Talks
2011
- Performative Identities, public presentation, at the American University of Beirut
- The text as an Act, talk, with the philosopher Cecilia Sjoholm, Iaspis, Stockholm
- Resonant Memories, lecture, workshop and studio visits, Konstfack: Fine Art master class, Stockholm
- Stories of a suburb, presentation, faculty of Architecture, University of Stockholm
- Edward Said: Academics, Activism, Art- symposium, department of Theater studies, University of Amsterdam
- Ethics and Manipulation in performance work, School for New Dance Development, SNDO, Amsterdam
- Shifting Identities: anecdotes, lecture and studio visits in the frame of Buro #4 Emigree for design and art students, The Art Academy, Utrecht, NL
Publications
2010
- In Pursuit of New Beginnings, editor: Sinziana Ravini, Iaspis, Stockholm
- Where We Are Not, in collaboration with A. Cordero and J. Fabius, in Notation, issue on notation in performance art and dance, Amsterdam
- Finding ‘a now’ to inhabit: between the performative in life and professional practice, Al Raida: issue on Arab Female Performance Artists, Beirut
- Resonant Bodies, Voices, Memories, Rotterdam
- Why Marco Polo Can Never Be A Citizen?,Production of private and public spheres, PAGES publication, issue #4, Rotterdam
Group exhibitions
2010
- New Beginnings, Iaspis, Stockholm
- Living Objects, Broedplaats de Vlugt, Amsterdam
- Rijkdom van Nederland, Stads Schouwburg, Amsterdam
- Rijkdom van Nederland, Women Inc. Festival, Amsterdam
- Zina Rocco tales, Tam Tam festival, Stads Schouwburg, Amsterdam
- Zina Rocco tales, Film Museum, Amsterdam
- Living Objects, de Balie, Amsterdam
- Expedition New West, Geuzenveld, Amsterdam
- Wie noemt mij mij?, stories of ‘Bos en Lommer’, Amsterdam
- ‘Wherein Certain Persons,…’, graduation show of Piet Zwart Institute, Tent, Rotterdam
- ‘How To Send a Message’, curated by Milica Tomic, Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam
- OPEN: on Nothingness, Arcadia Art Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
Solo exhibitions
2010
- Memories of White, video installation, de Balie, Amsterdam
- Zina neemt de wijk in Beelden, video installation, NNT, Groningen, NL
Relevant Work Experience | Workshops | Teaching
‘08-‘10
- Zina Platform, Maker, Zina’s artistic director Adelheid Roosen, De Balie, Amsterdam
Zina is a cultural platform that develops art and theatre projects in ‘problematic’ suburbs in The Netherlands, with the focus on immigrant women. Within Zina, I’ve initiated different workshops with (im)migrant women that have all inspired art projects. Those projects vary from video to photo portraits, performances to public interventions.
- Resonant Memories, 2 days workshop and studio visits, Masters Fine Art, at Konstfack, Stockholm
- We, myself and I, 6 weeks movement workshop for 12 female immigrants, Ruma Khami center, Amsterdam
- Movement & Voice expression, 6 weeks workshop, for 20 immigrant women, Stichting Vonk, Zeeburg, Amsterdam
- Police agents making portraits of ‘the other’, 3 days workshop, Zina platform in Zeeburg, Amsterdam
- Public Amusement: cultural platform, Maker/ researcher, Amsterdam
- Public Amusement is an artist’s collective that worked in neighbourhoods that were undergoing big urban transformations. It was mainly focusing on the relation between the city planner, the inhabitant and their different relationship to their surrounding.
- Journalism into the Intimate, guest teacher,‘Block’: “Who is I?”, DASARTS, Amsterdam
- Oriental dance and its expression, guest teacher, Theater department, The Art Academy/ AHK, Amsterdam
- Public amusement, Film project, together with the ‘youth’ organisation Dock, Geuzenveld, Amsterdam
- Connect: Cooking, watching films and talking,‘youth’ organisation Stichting Connect, Bos en Lommer, Amsterdam
- Theater group ‘Schudden’, movement/ choreography advisor, for their production ‘Ruis’, Utrect, NL
- Different creative workshops, dance | story writing and telling, for children (5-12), Stichting ‘No Limit’, De Bijlmer, Amsterdam
- Performance research, 3 days workshop, Theater department, LAU, Beirut
- Land(e)scapes: solo dance performance by Ana Ladas, artistic advisor, DWA, Amsterdam
