Artium Museoa presents The Land Shall Not Be Owned, a solo exhibition by the Lebanese artist  Marwa Arsanios (Washington, DC, 1978). At the heart of the exhibition is her series of documentary pieces entitled Who Is Afraid of Ideology? (2017-ongoing), a project in which Arsanios examines the reappropriation and exploitation of land in a variety of regions in the Middle East and South America. The exhibition presents its fifth and most recent chapter, Right of Passage (2025), co-produced by the museum in collaboration with the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona.

Who Is Afraid of Ideology? is an ongoing investigation into the politics of land distribution and extraction in which Arsanios shows us different forms of self-organisation in various communities of women, exploring how these challenge patriarchal structures.

The result is a collective portrait focusing on the stories told by its protagonists, where ecological, feminist, indigenous and decolonial perspectives converge to shape new forms of social organisation. At the same time, the artist deconstructs the documentary format – historically ethnographic, extractive and partial – by employing technical and narrative strategies, thereby breaking with interview conventions, disconnecting the sound from the image, and allowing the instructions and dialogues that construct the pieces to be heard.

Arsanios’ recent solo shows include: BAK Utrecht (2024), Kunsthalle Bratislava (2023), Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023), Mosaic Rooms, London (2022), Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Center (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2016); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015); and Art in General, New York (2015). Her work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions, recently including: Documenta 15 (2022), Mardin Biennial (2022), Sydney Biennial film program (2022), 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021); 11th Berlin Biennale (2020); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2020).

The exhibition, curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio, is being organised in collaboration with Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo where has been presented between April 8 and June 1, 2025.

[Image: Detail of a frame from Who is Afraid of Ideology?, Part 5: Right of Passage (Marwa Arsanios, 2025)]

LIST OF WORKS   BROCHURE 

This exhibition has been produced in collaboration with:

The film Who is Afraid of Ideology?, Part 5: Right of Passage has been produced in collaboration with: