Coco Fusco, Hassan Sharif

Coco Fusco and Hassan Sharif, among others, included in the exhibition A Prologue to the Past and Present State of Things curated by Aaron Cezar at Defina Foundation.

In tandem to Echoes & Reverberations exhibition at the Hayward Gallery Project Space, this group exhibition at Delfina Foundation explores performance as a form of recording and re-writing history. Artists include Doa Aly, Marwa Arsanios, Coco Fusco, Emily Jacir, Mona Hatoum, Sharon Hayes, Mohammed Kazem, Xiao Lu, Hassan Sharif, Wael Shawky, Sharif Waked, Lin Yilin and The Yes Men with Steve Lambert and more.

A Prologue to the Past and Present State of Things launches Staging Histories, a new research and commissioning platform for performance art. Through archival research and new commissions, Staging Histories traces seminal moments of performance mapping shared histories and contemporary global concerns. The first stage of the project explores performance art from and in relation to the Arab world.

The exhibition presents a constellation of key performative works, photographs, video documentation and archival materials from the last three decades. The thematic connections cross the Arab world but relate to global politics, economics and cultural shifts. The selected artworks can therefore be understood as a preface, consequence or echo of major developments during this period.