My People Will Return: In Air, In Water, In Light at Tick Tack, Antwerp

TICK TACK is proud to announce My People Will Return: In Air, In Water, In Light, a major group exhibition curated by Zayna Al-Saleh, in which the land and body bears witness to ethnic cleansing and genocide – physically and metaphysically – while delicately balancing the dichotomy of what remains and the promise of return. Art in this context becomes a force for resurrection.

The works on view respond to the final verse of the poem The “Red Indian’s” Penultimate Speech to the White Man by the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. Here, his words are intended to be read like prophecy and are intersectional to both legacies of erasure. However brazen and violent the attempt of these erasures, traces continue to infinitely exist in our knowledge of the land and its knowledge of us. The terrestrial and other elements are forces beyond the control of our oppressors and are thus indisputable, natural tools for renewal and return – in air, in water, in light.

The show features artists Dima Srouji, Hamada El Kept, Areej Kaoud, Khaled Jarrar, Millie Brown, Emily Jacir, Areen Hassan, Banksy, and filmed readings of the excerpted poem in Arabic and English by Saleh Bakri and Luca Kamleh Chapman. It opens within the week of Thanksgiving—a period often marked by reflection on origins, occupation, and reconciliation.

At sundown, the subject matter extends onto CINEMA TICK TACK, presenting a ‘Palestine Public Cinema Programme’ featuring works by Dima Srouji, Adam Broomberg + Lena Holzer, Steve Sabella, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Sharon Rose, Mark Wallinger, Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind. The films are projected throughout the night into the public domain, highlighting TICK TACK’s position on the border of the public/private, as well as day/night.