FORA.tv Speaker - Ayreen Anastas

Born in Bethlehem, Palestine. She relocated to Germany in 1989 for a DAAD scholarship where she studied architecture at the Technical University in Berlin until 1996. She is currently living in Brooklyn. She has taught at Pratt Institute- School of Architecture in Brooklyn since 1999 and is one of the primary organizers of the 16 Beaver group, an artist community that functions as a social and collaborative space on 16 Beaver street, where the group hosts panel discussions, film series, artist talks, radio recordings, reading groups and more. Anastas recent artistic projects and exhibitions include: Pasolini Pa* Palestine filmed while at Al-Ma'mal residency in Jerusalem in 2003 (shown at Homeworks III, Beirut 2005, and at Hebbel Theater, Berlin 2006) M* of Bethlehem (shown at Argos festival in Brussels 2005 and at CCA Glasgow. In the poem about love you don't write the word love? 2005), The Library of Useful Knowledge, an audiovisual archive at Inside Out Festival at the Bunker in Berlin, and collaborations with artist Rene Gabri (Camp Campaign, Artist talk, Radio Active, United We Stand). Her practice engages with issues of public and political space, language, the everyday and the question of Palestine. These concerns are articulated in various forms including videos, audio works, books, architectural models, multi- media presentations, social forms and drawings.