With highly symbolic photographs, videos, and performative interventions focused on his native Palestine, multidisciplinary artist Khaled Jarrar explores modern power struggles and their socio-cultural impact on ordinary citizens. The everyday objects appearing in Jarrar’s reflective work, whether by their shape or nature, are juxtaposed with the severity of the issues he examines, thus giving the political content of his art greater significance while underscoring the autobiographical nature of his chosen themes.

Over the past decade, Jarrar’s bold projects have earned him international recognition. In 2007, the artist displayed photographs of the Howarra & Qalandia checkpoint in plain sight of Israeli soldiers surveilling the border. Since 2011, his Live and Work in Palestine project has consisted of designing and distributing seemingly official Palestinian passport stamps to tourists arriving in the country. In his series titled Upcycle the Wall, the artist presented sculptures made of reconstituted concrete, which he chipped off the apartheid wall that cuts through and illegally annexes parts of the West Bank, evoking the ominous presence of the repressive barrier in every aspect of daily life.

His most recent performance projects were presented on the streets of Helsinki, Finland in 2014. The temporary Hunger Wall Jarrar assembled out of bread loaves symbolized the thin line between prosperity and poverty. With Dis-/Obey, he involved dozens of volunteers in a military march, which ultimately placed them in contrast to Jarrar’s voiced orders in front of an installation of camouflage uniforms. Commissioned by Checkpoint Helsinki as part of the Helsinki Festival, Dis-/Obey investigated military power, disobedience, and individual responsibility in conflict zones.