Ahmad Ghossein
Ahmad Ghossein is an artist and filmmaker. He holds an MFA in Visual Art from the National Academy of Art-(KHIO) in Oslo and a BFA in Theater from the Lebanese University, Beirut.
His practice utilizes a number of media, including video art, installation, art in public spaces, photographs
and film. The starting point of his work is the collectioning and analysis of facts, documents, and found footage, which then feed into a body of work that draws on the potential of the moving image. He is interested in the connection between individual human experiences and shared historical and political realities. His work is driven by personal and emotional experience, but is essentially concerned with the larger political dynamics of his time.
His works include:
The Fourth Stage – Lebanon/2015/Video/Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation، Relocating the Past, Ruins for the Future – Norway/2013/a public space project, You have to Swim, You have no Choice, Lebanon and Norway/2012/Video/Commissioned and nominated for the DnB Nor Sparebank Foundation Exhibition 2012, Oslo Art Association. Yesterday’s News – Solo exhibition – Kunstforening/2012/Oslo. This is not the news of today – Norway/2012/Video. My Father is Still a Communist Lebanon/2011/Video/Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. What Does Not Resemble Me Looks Exactly Like Me – Lebanon/2009/Video/With Ghassan Salhab and Mohamad Soueid. Faces Applauding Alone – Lebanon/2008/Video/210” – Lebanon/2007/Video/10”/Commissioned by Ashkal Alwan.
Ghossein’s work has been exhibited in different museums and galleries and has been screened in various film festivals around the world the including Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and New Museum in New York, Sharjah Art Foundation, Center Pompidou in Paris, Oslo Kunstforening, Kunsthall in Oslo, With Koro (Uro) in Oslo, Ashkal Alwan’s Home Works in Beirut, SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul, Nam June Paik Art Center in South Korea, MuCEM museum in Marseille, Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen, the Bétonsalon in Paris, the Haus am Waldsee art space in Berlin, Beirut Film Festival, Berlinale Film Festival, Dubai Film Festival, Tribeca Doha Film Festival, Oberhausen Film Festival, Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya, and the Fid Marseille Film Festival.
Ghossein’s latest short film, White Noise, which was produced under the auspices of “Lebanon Factory,” will open the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival (La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs – Cannes) 2017. He was awarded the Production Programme Award by the Sharjah Art Foundation in 2014, the Ibsen scholarship award in 2013, and Best Short Film in the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in 2011. He is currently the co-director of the Beirut Art Center since 2019, he is also the co-curator of CO2 an artistic platform in Beirut.
His first feature film, All This Victory won three awards at the Venice International Film Festival’s International Film Critics’ Week (SIC) including the Grand Prize, the Audience award as well as the Award for best Technical Contribution. The film is currently still touring.