Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme on Sound, Resistance, and Love at MACBA

At MACBA – Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present 'Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom', an immersive installation exploring Palestinian incarceration through sound, memory, and poetic utterance. The work draws on research into song as a life-sustaining practice in prison, where singing maintains connection to the outside and fosters collectivity. The artists reject documentary forms, favoring an embodied, living archive that resists colonial modes of seeing. They emphasize nonlinear narratives to counter enforced amnesia and situate Palestine within broader anti-colonial struggle. The installation disrupts passive spectatorship through spatial choreography and fragmented perception, implicating the viewer physically and emotionally. The title references love as the core of resistance, a force sustaining struggle against erasure. The work carries a call toward freedom, inspired by journalist Anis al-Sharif's will. The exhibition is on view until 28 September 2026.