Xaytun Ennasr

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST
PALESTINE / TURTLE ISLAND

Xaytun Ennasr (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer. Their work includes videogames, drawings, ceramics, installations, and text. It centers around Palestinian liberation, intersectional resistance movements, and revolutionary cultural production. They often use the vocabulary and aesthetics of science fiction, folklore, and radical softness as devices to depict a world beyond capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. Explore their work on their website and follow them on Instagram. 

I believe that the role of art in social change / justice is in producing revolutionary culture which facilitates emancipation from extractive colonial capitalism and patriarchy.
Xaytun Ennasr

What role do you think art can play in social change?

One of the biggest lies that I was told about art was that it was primarily a form of self-expression, when in fact it is cultural production. Art that is primarily concerned with self-expression tends to mostly produce individualist neoliberal culture. I therefore believe that the role of art in social change / justice is in producing revolutionary culture which facilitates emancipation from extractive colonial capitalism and patriarchy. 

How does your artistic practice amplify or support social movements?

The didactic nature of my practice, and its explicit positioning within Palestinian liberation inherently amplifies the movement. 

What does this award mean for you and your practice?

Over the past five years I’ve been able to engage in waged work which funded my living expenses and art production. Part of the award will go towards covering my living expenses as I look for a new job. The rest will go towards creating a cooperative gallery which replicates the 50 /50 cut of commercial galleries; however, the 50% that the cooperative gallery takes will go into paying monthly wages for all artists within the cooperative.

Featured work

Nothing Old, Nothing New is a collection of experimental videogames, drawings, text, and objects developed over the course of six years. The project plays on the relationship between capitalism, colonialism, depictions of landscapes, real estate development, and folklore, then tries to re-appropriate them in order to envision a revolutionary utopia.
Nothing Old, Nothing New is a collection of experimental videogames, drawings, text, and objects developed over the course of six years. The project plays on the relationship between capitalism, colonialism, depictions of landscapes, real estate development, and folklore, then tries to re-appropriate them in order to envision a revolutionary utopia.
“Revolution is a forest that the colonist can't burn” celebrates the resistance to colonial capitalist extraction using a radically soft vocabulary. Through different depictions of landscapes over a variety of media, trees are presented not as resources waiting to be extracted, but as symbols of resistance and devotion, from Palestine to the Amazons. As beings that are loved and that love back.
“Revolution is a forest that the colonist can't burn” celebrates the resistance to colonial capitalist extraction using a radically soft vocabulary. Through different depictions of landscapes over a variety of media, trees are presented not as resources waiting to be extracted, but as symbols of resistance and devotion, from Palestine to the Amazons. As beings that are loved and that love back.