Bouchra Khalili. Between Circles and Constellations

The exhibition brings together projects from the last ten years of Khalili’s oeuvre, including film, video-installations, photography and documentary material. The exhibition will feature the European premiere of The Circle (2023), a video installation that examines and reactivates the legacy of the Arab Workers Movement and their theatre groups Al Assifa and Al Halaka in France in the 1970s.

Bouchra Khalili. Between Circles and Constellations ran at MACBA from 17 February to 28 May 2023, co-curated by Hiuwai Chu and Elvira Dyangani Ose. It brought together work from the previous decade – film, video installation, photography and documentary material – through which Khalili addresses anti-colonial struggles, histories of liberation and international solidarity. The title refers to Al-Halqa, the circle or assembly of a centuries-old tradition of public storytelling in Morocco, taken here as a figure for the search for political visibility and for what the artist calls radical citizenship. The exhibition included the European premiere of The Circle (2023), a work on the legacy of the Arab Workers' Movement in 1970s France.