Jumana Manna
A Small Big Thing
Installation shot: Øystein Thorvaldsen / Henie Onstad Archive
Jumana Manna is a distinctive artist of her generation. In the past years, Manna has pushed the boundaries of art while working with moving image and sculpture. A Small Big Thing is her first solo museum presentation.
The exhibition includes the Norwegian premiere of the film Wild Relatives (2018), a meditative documentary capturing the transit of seeds between the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to the fields of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Alongside the film, are two installations that question archival practices. In the adjacent gallery space another two installations present the fragmented body in relation to its location.
The title “A Small Big Thing” reveals the various connotations of scale present in the artist’s practice as well as in the configurations of the works in the exhibition complex. From the flat film screen to the three-dimensional space her sculptures occupy, scale is an instrument for Manna’s archaeological explorations of classification methos and biological processes.
The exhibition spans and makes meaningful contributions to diverse disciplines, from photography and film to sculpture, collage and installation.
-
Born in the United States, Manna grew up in Jerusalem and is now based in Berlin. She began her studies at the Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and soon after traveled to Norway to earn a BFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Afterwards, Manna moved to the United States and earned an MA in Aesthetics and Politics from CalArts in Los Angeles. Working in film and sculpture, Manna’s work explores how power is articulated through relationships, often focusing on the body and materiality in relation to narratives of nationalism and histories of place.
Manna has exhibited at Mercer Union, Toronto, 2017; Malmö Konsthall, 2016; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon, 2015; Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2015; SculptureCenter, New York, 2014; and Kunsthall Oslo, 2013. She has participated in group exhibitions such as Satellite 10, Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2017; Nordic Pavilion, 57th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, 2016; Kunsthalle Wien, 2016; Liverpool Biennial 2016; Marrakech Biennale 6, 2016; 20th Biennale of Sydney, 2016; and Jerusalem Show VII and VIII, Al-Ma’mal Foundation, 2014 and 2016.
Manna’s films have been screened in festivals such as 66th and 68th Berlinale Forum, 2016 and 2018; CPH: DOX, Copenhagen, 2018; BAFICI – Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, FID Marseille, 54th Viennale International Film Festival, and 16th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival, Wrocław, all in 2016; and International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2013 and 2017.
Manna is the recipient of the New:Visions Award from CPH:DOX (2018), ars viva Prize for Visual Arts (2017), Sandefjord Kunstpris (2015), and the A.M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Palestinian Artist Award (2012). She was nominated for the Preis der Nationalgalerie in 2017.
- Jumana Manna ─ A Small Big Thing
-
Jumana Manna
-
Ana María Bresciani