


Photo: Ibrahim Dirani
War is not Bread for the Poor
Video / Performance-based work
In collaboration with: Rahman Hawi
Year: 2024
Exhibited in: Artspace Spektakel / Parallel Vienna
War is not Bread for the Poor is a video-based performance work that reflects on grief, loss, and survival in times of war. Through simple and everyday materials — such as onions, plates, and black ink — the performance addresses how violence enters daily life and how the body absorbs collective trauma.
The work avoids direct representation of war, instead focusing on repetition, gesture, and material presence. These actions create a quiet yet insistent language that speaks of mourning, resistance, and endurance, highlighting the distance between political conflict and the lived reality of those most affected.
By working with modest materials and restrained actions, the piece emphasizes the disparity between the rhetoric of war and the basic needs of the poor, turning absence, silence, and repetition into a form of testimony.
