Francisca Khamis Giacoman is a Chilean artist of Palestinian origin. Her recent work deals with fragmented diasporic memories. In performances and installations, she recalls stories of migration and unfolds them at the boundaries of fiction and materiality. Her focus is on the consolidation of intermediate identities.
In her work, Khamis Giacoman combines oral histories and objects from her family with the migrant stories she has heard in recent years, especially those of Palestinians or Arabs living in exile in her native Chile. The effect of intermediate identities is of particular interest to her research and forms the basis of her work.
A parcel she received from her family in Chile now plays an important role in her work. As she opens the box and folds the fabric, she unfolds stories that are embedded in these materials, but are also fictional. Identities are always constructed between fiction and reality. This act of (un)folding provides a glimpse into diasporic memory and an insight into the many in-between states that permeate Francisca's life, as well as so many others.
Francisca Khamis Giacoman has exhibited at Rozenstraat, Amsterdam; Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn; Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; Kunstverein, Amsterdam; PuntWG, Amsterdam; Stroom, The Hague; Stadium, Berlin. Her work has been published in Zelda Magazine, Finland; and she was artist in residence in Umeå, Sweden. Francisca Khamis Giacoman recently co-founded Espacio Estamos Bien, an art cooperative based in Amsterdam that organises meetings, publications and exhibitions.
Cae
Cae eternamente
Cae al fondo del infinito
Cae al fondo del tiempo
Cae al fondo de ti mismo
Cae lo más bajo que se pueda caer
Cae sin vértigo
A través de todos los espacios y todas las edades
A través de todas las almas de todos los anhelos y todos los naufragios
Cae y quema al pasar los astros y los mares
Quema los ojos que te miran y los corazones que te aguardan
Quema el viento con tu voz
El viento que se enreda en tu voz
Y la noche que tiene frío en su gruta de huesos
Cae en infancia
Cae en vejez
Cae en lágrimas
Cae en risas
Cae en música sobre el universo
Cae de tu cabeza a tus pies Cae de tus pies a tu cabeza
Cae del mar a la fuente
Cae al último abismo de silencio
Como el barco que se hunde apagando sus luces
Caer ascendiendo
Caer hacia arriba
Caer al revés
Fall
Perpetually fall
Fall to the depths of the infinity
Fall to the depths of time
Fall to the depths of yourself
Fall as far as you can fall
Dizzilessly fall
Across all space across all ages
Across all the souls of all the desperate
(and all the shipwrecked
Fall and burn past stars and seas
Burn the eyes that watch you the hearts
(that await you
Burn the wind with your voice
The wind tangled in your voice
And the night freezing in its cave of bones
Fall into childhood
Fall into senility
Fall into tears
Fall into laughter
Fall into music over the universe
Fall from your head to your feet
Fall from your feet to your head
Fall from the sea to the source
Fall to the final pit of silence
Like a sinking ship with its
(lights going out
To fall ascending
To fall upwards
To fall upside down
Excerpt of Altazor: Canto I (1931) by Vicente Huidobro translated by Cecilia Vicuña and fragment of Caer Ascendiendo by Francisca Khamis Giacoman
Caer Ascendiendo
Khamis started her residency on 24 March 2023. She continued working on the piece Caer Ascendiendo (Fall Ascending), with the idea of ‘in between’ identities, looking into stories of diaspora through the textile.
At the her public sharing on Friday 2 she opened a parcel of this research, inviting the audience to participate in her residency process.
Francisca Khamis Giacoman has exhibited her works at various places including Biblioteka in London, ExtraCiy in Antwerp, Rozenstraat in Amsterdam, Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Gold+Beton, Cologne, PuntWG in Amsterdam, and Stroom in Den Haag. She was recently an artist in residence at BAU in Amsterdam. Along with this, she co-founded Espacio Estamos Bien, a project space based in Amsterdam that organises gatherings, publications, and exhibitions. Francisca is currently in charge of the development of a support initiative for non-European students at the Sandberg Instituut and Gerrit Rietveld Academie.
The BAU AIR DOTE residency is a collaboration between BAU and Dancing on the Edge.
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