Montoro12 Contemporary Art is proud to present Larissa Sansour’s (b. 1973, Jerusalem) new projects In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain and Archaeology in Absentia, both shown in Italy for the first time.

The former consists of a 29 minute film, three diasec photographs and a porcelain installation, while the latter is represented by small bronze sculptures resembling bombs, a series of black and white photographs and a poster. The film In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain resides in the cross-section between sci-fi, archaeology and politics. Combining live motion and computer-generated imagery, the film explores the role of myth for history, fact and national identity. A resistance group buries a series of elaborate porcelain - belonging to a fictional civilization - in the ground in order for archaeologists to discover them in the future. The aim of the group is to influence history and support future claims to their vanishing lands. Once unearthed, this tableware will prove the existence of this counterfeit people. By implementing a myth of their own, their work becomes an historical intervention – de facto creating a nation.

Archaeology in Absentia (2016) is represented by two small bronze sculptures resembling both bombs and at the same time precious-looking Fabergé eggs. Inside the bombs are metal disks engraved with the coordinates, longitude and latitude, of the location where the artist has actually buried porcelain plates in Palestine as part of a performance. Carrying the iconic Palestinian keffiyeh pattern, these plates are deposited for future archaeologists to excavate. Once unearthed, they will interfere with current versions of history and in effect cause a historical intervention.

In these two new projects Larissa Sansour brilliantly questions the writing of history, national narratives and the role of archeology for claims of territory.

Larissa Sansour was born in 1973 in East Jerusalem, Palestine, and studied Fine Arts in London, New York and Copenhagen. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue and utilizes film, photography, installation and sculpture. Central to her work is the tug and pull between fiction and reality.

Recent solo exhibitions include the Mosaic Rooms, London, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark, Turku Art Museum in Finland, Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the UK, Photographic Center in Copenhagen, Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Lawrie Shabibi in Dubai, and DEPO in Istanbul. Sansour’s work has been featured in the Biennials of Istanbul, Yinchuan, Busan and Liverpool.

She has exhibited at venues such as Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; LOOP, Seoul; Al Hoash, Jerusalem; Queen Sofia Museum, Madrid; Centre for Photography, Sydney; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Townhouse, Cairo; Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah, UAE; Empty Quarter, Dubai; Galerie Nationale de Jeu de Paume, Paris; Iniva, London; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; Third Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou , China; Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark; House of World Cultures, Berlin, and MOCA, Hiroshima.

Sansour currently lives and works in London, UK.