School of Intrusions is a collective of sorts practicing informal ways of gathering in and around specific urban and rural sites in Palestine. The members of the group change and fluctuate. Initiated by Noor Abed and Lara Khaldi in 2019, School of Intrusions aims to actively practice the notion of ‘commons’ in everyday work and life.
Noor Abed is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. Her practice examines notions of choreography and the imaginary relationship of individuals, creating situations where social possibilities are both rehearsed and performed. Abed attended the Whitney Independent Study Program in Νew York in 2015-16, and the Home Workspace Program (HWP) at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut in 2016-17. She received her BA from the International Academy of Arts in Palestine and a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. She was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine (2014) and a fellow in documenta (13)’s “Department of Maybe Educatiοn and Public Programs” in Kassel, Germany. A finalist and a third prize-winner in the 2014 Young Artist Award, she was awarded the March Project residency and commission from Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE) in 2016. Abed was awarded residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (France) in 2018, the U-jazdowski Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw (Poland) in 2020, and Raw Material Company in Dakar (Senegal) in 2019, among others. In 2020, she co-founded, with Lara Khaldi, the “School of Intrusions,” an independent educational platform in Ramallah, Palestine. Abed is currently exploring the critical stance of ‘folklore’ as a source of knowledge, and it’s possible connection to alternative social and representational models in Palestine.
https://theoctopusprogramme.uni-ak.ac.at/index.php/noor-abed/
Lara Khaldi is a cultural worker based in Jerusalem, Palestine. She is an alumna of the De Appel Curatorial Programme, Amsterdam (2013) and the European Graduate School, Switzerland (2015). Recent projects she has co-curated include: School of Intrusions, Educational Platform with Noor Abed, Ramallah (2020); Overtone: On the Politics of Listening, exhibition and symposium, Goethe Institute, Ramallah (2019); Unweaving Narratives: Performance Program, Palestinian Museum, Birzeit (2018); Shifting Ground, satellite project of Sharjah Biennial 13, Ramallah (2017); Desires into Fossils: Monuments Without a State, a series of research exhibitions with Reem Shilleh, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah (2017); Jerusalem Shows V & VI, Al Ma’mal Art Foundation, Jerusalem (2011 and 2012).
Khaldi has taught art history, theory, and exhibition practices at the International Academy of Art Palestine and Dar Al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture, Bethlehem. Until recently she was Head of the Media Studies Program at Bard Al Quds College, Jerusalem. She has contributed to various art publications, especially around her ongoing research project on the question of museums in crisis. Forthcoming is the essay “We Are Still Alive So Remove Us from Memory: Asynchronicity and the Museum in Resistance,” in Errant Journal, Amsterdam, 2020.