Mounira Al Solh

For those fleeing countries at war, the prospect of return is extremely fragile: it might become necessary to escape the bombs again. This repeatability of war and flight has defined Mounira Al Solh’s biography. The artist grew up during the Lebanese Civil War and now lives between Amsterdam and Beirut, where she recently experienced an Israeli air strike just as she was departing. Al Solh’s animation films tap into these experiences and mix them with memories of ancient wars and their endless cycles of violence. She focuses on the Phoenicians and their encounters with the ruling powers in the Levant as well as the role of Lebanon’s women during the civil war.

Mounira Al Solh (1978, Beirut, Lebanon) is an artist who works with video installation, painting, drawing, embroidery, and performative gestures. Always self-reflexive and ironic, her work delves into feminist issues, tracks patterns of microhistory, and bears witness to the impact of conflict and displacement. Al Solh has recently had solo exhibitions at Museumsquartier Osnabrück (2022) and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2022). In 2024, Al Solh represented Lebanon at the 60th Venice Biennale and won the Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize. She lives in Amsterdam and Beirut.