Larissa Sansour

Larissa Sansour was born in 1973 in East Jerusalem, Palestine, and studied fine arts in London, New York and Copenhagen. Central to her work is the tug and pull between fiction and reality. In her recent works, she uses science fiction to address social and political issues. Working mainly with film, Sansour also produces installations, photos and sculptures.

Sansour’s work is shown in film festivals and museums worldwide. In 2019, she represented Denmark at the 58th Venice Biennial. She has shown her work at Tate Modern, MoMA, Centre Pompidou and the Istanbul Biennial. Recent solo exhibitions include Bluecoat in Liverpool and Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen.

Sansour currently lives and works in London, UK.

Heirloom

LIM | Less is More 2020

30 years after an apocalypse, the new citizens of Bethlehem return to the town they left behind. All inhabitants are 28-year-old clones engineered from the remnants of children lost in the apocalypse – the first generation to return as part of a large-scale experiment monitored by a group of elders. The aim is to restore life to a time long before the disaster and redesign the Palestinian identity, attempting to rid it of historical trauma. Each clone carries the childhood memories of their genetic ancestor, while their personal pasts have been erased. Coupled up for purposes of reproduction, Alia and Elias have no knowledge of the experiment they are part of, but live their carefree lives in a commune-like environment, until Alia is haunted by vivid images from an estranged past, and life as she understands it begins to unravel. Her search for answers leads her to an old stone cabin with a staircase leading to the far corners of her own unhinged memories.