Artists in Residency

© خاصة Jasmina El Bouamraoui 

Jasmina El Bouamraoui works as the German-Moroccanillustrator EL BOUM, based in Berlin. Explorations of identity, memory, and the politics of visibility shape her visual language. Her projects address historical and contemporary forms of erasure, particularly where gendered assumptions influence craft, labor, and the stories told about them. She creates visual archives that counter omission, reframe overlooked perspectives, and open spaces for imagining future narratives. Her multidisciplinary practice spans illustration and painting as well as large-scale works on wood, where materiality, surface, and craft processes plays central role.

© Private Laure Ibrahim

Laure Ibrahim is a Lebanese artist based in Beirut. She graduated the Lebanese academy of fine arts (ALBA) where she specialized in Illustration and comics.
In 2022, She co-created Mazza Collective, a publishing organization that aims to promote visual storytelling in Lebanon. In 2024, she published her first graphic novel “Qui a tué Asmahan ?” with writer Nadia Hathroubi Safsaf and publisher Alifbata in Marseille, France.
Her drawings for Qui a tué Asmahan ? were exhibited in the 9th edition of CairoComix in Cairo. She is currently working on her second book which she will develop during the Halaqat residency for graphic novels in the Goethe Institute Cairo, Egypt.
Laure's work seeks resonance through its focus on community, rooted in the landscape of her upbringing and the city that shaped her.

© Private Gracia Koussa

Gracia Koussa is a multidisciplinary artist, with special focus on linocut printing.
Graduated from the Lebanese academy of fine arts (ALBA) with a master’s degree in illustration and comics in 2022.
She co-founded the collective Mizza in 2021, which focuses on the publication of emerging artists in the field of visual narration in the region.
Her work explores themes like death, ancestry, identity and community. Working with disciplines like printing, illustration, comics, fiber art, photography, and creative writing, she creates a poetic rendition filled with symbolism of her experience as an Arab woman.
 

© Private Nouran El Qadi

Nourhan, also known asNourleq, is a DJ, selector, and music curator whose practice bridges Egyptian and African heritage with contemporary sonic experimentation. Her sets draw on folklore, archival sound, and traditional genres such aszar, alongside ambient, electronic, and jazz-influenced textures, exploring cultural memory, intergenerational dialogue, and collective healing.
Known for her thoughtful, context-driven approach, Nourleq performs across cultural, outdoor, and club settings, adapting her sound whileremainingrooted in storytelling and sonic research. Her recent work includes SAT7 Vol.1, a live collaboration with trombonist Zekkereya El-Magharbel, the folklore group Abu ElGhait, andOnsy, as well as curated listening sessions based on the Egyptian Folklore Music Archive.

© Private Farah Hijazi

Farahis a multidisciplinary artist and researcher based in Amsterdam, with roots in Palestine and Jordan. Her practice moves between personal reflection and political inquiry, exploring how emotions, relationships, and systems of power shape human experience. Working intuitively and open-endedly, her process begins with questions or feelings that unfold through making, embracing play, curiosity, and the unexpected.
Her current research focuses on surveillance, resistance, and belonging within systemic structures, approaching technologies of control as tools for reflection and connection. In recent years, she has led art workshops in asylum centers in the Netherlands, experiences that inform her ongoing project beinwbein (“in-between”), a participatory installation and performance exploring surveillance, resistance, and care.

© Private Majida Lamrabte

A singer, producer, and songwriter of Afro-Italian heritage with Moroccan roots, born and raised in working-class neighborhoods in Genoa. Music has been her refuge and primary form of expression from an early age. She later moved to the Netherlands to invest fully in her artistic journey and pursue a meaningful music career.
Her work explores social and political themes, drawing on personal and community experiences. Over the past two years, she has released tracks online, produced part of her music independently, and collaborated with artists from the Netherlands, Morocco, and Italy. She has performed in cities including Amsterdam, Reggio Emilia, Pisa, Genoa, and Milan, and recently advanced to the semifinals of the Italian national contest Palchibelli.

Randa Mirza

Randa Mirza (Beirut, 1978) is a visual artist who lives and works in Marseille and Beirut. Her practice encompasses photography, video and live AV performances.  Her work occupies the space between documentary, artistic writing and personal expression, providing space for reflection, reparation and resistance in the face of violence. She often questions hegemonic systems of thought and representations from a feminist and decolonial perspective. Mirza’s work received several awards, including the Photo Folio review prize at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2024, the Eyes wide Open first book prize, andLotfi the No Limit Award at the Rencontres d'Arles in 2006.

Lotfi Ghariani

Lotfi Ghariani (b. Sfax, Tunisia; lives in Tunis) is a photographer and visual artist whose work explores Black identity, memory and social marginalization in North Africa. Working across photography, video, sound, installation and archival materials, he challenges dominant narratives and recovers hidden histories. His long-term project Black Tunisians: The Unseen Citizens was a finalist in the Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories (2022). Ghariani has exhibited both locally and internationally, including at the Bamako Encounters – Biennale of African Photography (2011, Mali), the Mediterranean Art Biennale of Tunis (2010, Tunis) and Artists in the City at the Atelier of Alexandria (2008, Egypt). In 2024, he expanded his research on race, migration and belonging through a residency in Germany supported by the EU.

Aya Chriki

Aya Chriki (1995, Gabès, Tunisia) is a visual artist and PhD candidate in Art History and Fine Arts. Through photography, video art, writing, and research, she explores exile, gender, displacement, and identity. She won the Photography Prize at Gabès Cinéma Fen (2022) and was recognized in the ICTJ’s Outre-mer writing competition (2024). In 2025, she was selected for the Mediterranean project Tae’thir – Resisting Resignation and became a finalist for Arab Artists Now. With KalamAflam, she led the Cairo workshop From the Image, We Build Walls, a Roof, and Windows, gathering migrant and exiled women artists around the notion of home. Since 2018, she has exhibited in Tunisia, France, Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE, and beyond.
Ali Asfour is a Palestinian analog film photographer and DJ whose work explores displacement, identity, and resistance through cinematic imagery and sound. His exhibitions have been shown internationally, including in New York and New Zealand, and his photography has appeared in publications such as GQ Middle East, Dazed Middle East, and The New Arab. He also hosts SADAA: Echoes of the MENA on Mutant Radio, spotlighting the region’s rich musical heritage.

Ali Asfour Ali Asfour

Ali Asfour is a Palestinian analog film photographer and DJ whose work explores displacement, identity, and resistance through cinematic imagery and sound. His exhibitions have been shown internationally, including in New York and New Zealand, and his photography has appeared in publications such as GQ Middle East, Dazed Middle East, and The New Arab. He also hosts SADAA: Echoes of the MENA on Mutant Radio, spotlighting the region’s rich musical heritage.