Ensemble

Dima Srouji is a Palestinian architect, artist and researcher whose work excavates the ground – literally and metaphorically – as a site of suppressed histories and potential liberation. Her interdisciplinary practice operates at the intersection of history, colonialism and the politics of place, exploring spaces for potential collective repair. Prompted by the urgency of the violence in Palestine, Srouji’s investigates the architectural “what-ifs”: unrealised historical plans, abandoned structures and speculative designs that gesture toward alternative futures.

Her project Jaffa: Fragments from a Continuous Modernity explores the unrealised 1946–48 master plan for Jaffa, the explores the unrealised 1946–48 master plan for Jaffa, the last attempt by the city’s Palestinian mayor to present a ‘modern’ vision to the British Mandate authorities, aimed at preventing the city’s occupation. Srouji revives this phantom plan not out of nostalgia, but as a critical reflection on the assumed relationship between modernity and freedom. She uncovers the irony that, by embracing the coloniser’s definition of ‘modernity’, the plan inherently contained the logic of its own erasure, challenging the assumption that marginalised peoples must perform civilisation to exist. In a context where architecture often plays a role in systems of violence, Srouji’s work stands as a powerful reminder of its potential as a tool for memory, a vessel for the spirit and a foundation for liberation.

we refuse_d is produced by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, on the occasion of their 15th anniversary, and presented in partnership with M HKA.
Curated by Nadia Radwan and Vasıf Kortun.