Ruanne Abou-Rahme on Poetics of Resistance as Praxis at MACBA

In February 2026, MACBA in Barcelona opened the first Spanish exhibition of Basel Abbas (Nicosia, 1983) and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (Boston, 1983), curated by Hiuwai Chu. The show spans nearly two decades of collaboration, featuring installations, videos, and archival works that explore political memory, resistance imaginaries, and audiovisual poetics. The centerpiece is 'Prisoners of Love. Until the Sun of Freedom', a site-specific installation addressing Palestinian repression from the 1948 Nakba to the present. Other works include 'Collapse' (2009), their first collaborative film built from black-and-white archival fragments; 'Screenshots' (2014–ongoing); and 'Desktop Performances' (2021–ongoing), which examine how images and sounds circulate online under surveillance. In an interview, Abou-Rahme discusses resistance as everyday refusal and resilience, the role of poetry in disrupting colonial language, and non-linear temporality as a counter to the amnesiac present. She emphasizes that the work is first addressed to a Palestinian audience, functioning as a love letter to prisoners, land, and community. The exhibition arrives amid escalating violence in Gaza and the region, giving the work urgent political resonance. Abou-Rahme also critiques the art market's toxicity and the need for collective cultural spaces beyond institutional channels.