Marwa Abou Hatab – Portfolio
Aperture of Time: A participatory performance

Aperture of Time: A participatory performance

Working Title

Working Title

Questions of Cosmopolitanism and Boundaries of Space in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Questions of Cosmopolitanism and Boundaries of Space in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

On Belief: Cultural Heritage

On Belief: Cultural Heritage

In Conversation, 2017

In Conversation, 2017

Ferdinand II., Verfremdung I., Verfremdung II.

Ferdinand II., Verfremdung I., Verfremdung II.

Vorarlberg Residency Sketchbook

Vorarlberg Residency Sketchbook

bodily experience in public and semi public spaces sketchbook

bodily experience in public and semi public spaces sketchbook

On Perception

On Perception

Work In Progress

Work In Progress

About the artwork

Aperture of Time is a participatory performance that explores the relationship between identity, history, images, and memory through mirrors, smartphone images, bodily movement, and the architectural and historical setting of the Aula. The work invites visitors into a shifting field of reflection in which perception is unstable, relational, and shaped by movement through space and time.

From this emerges what I call Meta–Camera Obscura. The work begins, for me, with the historical concept of the camera obscura, while consciously departing from its classical form. In art history, the camera obscura is often associated with a fixed observer, a stable perspective, and a controlled visual field in which the image is organized through a particular apparatus of seeing. I do not seek to reconstruct that model literally. Rather, I reflect on it critically and rework it as a contemporary, political, open, and participatory image-space.

Through mirrors, smartphone images, bodily movement, and the spatial and historical conditions of the Aula, I propose a meta–camera obscura: not a closed chamber of vision, but a mutable field in which perception shifts with each movement through space. The gaze is not singular or stabilized in advance. It is mobile, embodied, and continually reconfigured through angle, distance, gesture, and the presence of others.

Exhibition: Ich sehe, ich sehe, ich sehe, group exhibition organized by the Drawing Class (@klassezeichnen), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Location: Aula, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Schillerplatz 1.

Performance scope

This is a probe performance exploring the relationship between identity, history, images and memory… The script is intended as a flexible and experimental piece, meant to be adapted, interacted, emboding visitors with in the space, the selves and time. The visitors may explore moments of improvisation, others engagement, and spontaneous reflection.

[SETTING: I and the visitors are between two mirrors facing each other—one on the Aula wall and the other in the “Demoraum.” I interact with the mirrors, a smartphone or a camera, a jacket, and the surrounding space.]

[Raise the smartphone and look at their reflection through its camera, then lower it. Move in the Aula, go to the mirrors, turn to see themselves in the mirrors, moving between both reflections.]
“Everything starts with looking,” “Alles geht zuerst über das Schauen…”
I look into my reflection in the screen and ask myself…
Who has been through these walls under this ceiling? How many events took place? Exhibitions, how many people would I meet through these reflections?
Even when I only see my reflection, I see others moving—now and in the past, and to the future.

[Pause, looking thoughtfully into the mirror. Slowly, I begin to take off my jacket, folding it carefully and holding it up, as if examining how this simple action transforms my reflection. I place the jacket down, feeling a sense of exposure and change in my self-image.]

I heard in a meeting in this room of the Aula’s occupation in late October 2009, a protest against the Bologna system and restrictions on higher education. I heard in seminars of the discrimination during the NS time here, and in recent years, I was at the Klima Action Month in October 2022; I witnessed the occupation during the “Uni Brint” protests for climate change.

[With the jacket draped, I move slowly, observing my transformed reflection in the mirror. Then, I put the jacket back on, I take a picture, as if re-assuming a familiar identity, noticing how each small shift affects the person and the many reflection of the selfe and spaces reflected back to me.]

When I enter the Aula, I see the covered statues, the name of an empire. I see my skeptical look when I read that name as I enter this room. I see the iconographical painting on the ceiling.
I wrote a note to look for these myths, but I could not find them online. I lost time in another time loop of daily life and couldn’t find them before tonight’s opening.

[Gestures upward in the mirror, then walks around and gazes toward the ceiling, as if inviting the audience/visitors to look with them.]

But I can describe them, just as you can glance up or observe the figure in your own gaze in the mirror… perhaps in the other work in this room.
“Narcissus does not love himself but succumbs to the seductive power of an image. To question oneself so deeply can make one’s whole worldview tremble.”
In this reflection, I see myself and the other in me, with an interest in who I am and who the people around me are, the hybrid Identities in.

[Shift slightly, seeming to reach out toward the mirror before pausing and addressing the audience/visiotrs directly.]
One can travel through their own perception in this room—to the past and to the future.

[Gaze at the mirrors.]
There are many gazes here… This exhibition holds the Mendoza gaze, the gaze that admires, the gaze that is skeptical, the gaze influenced by social and historical forces, the gazes that.... All of them are here, reflected in these mirrors.

What moment of one’s identity exists in this loop? And to what moment in the future does one aspire?

[Take a photo of their reflection in the mirror, then look down at it, almost contemplatively.]
Until we exist, do these images and reflections disappear? Or do they stay with us, in memory? I thought I would capture it—to capture this time loop in a photograph.

[Look out to the audience, visitors with an inviting gesture, as if encouraging them to join.]
Feel free to enter a time loop, past and future… to press the button and share it with the visitors here. And send it to me, it will reappear, and this moment will be captured again and again through many narratives.

[Pause, gazing into the mirror as if seeing countless versions of themselves.]
One identity is so complex to see that this loop of multiple, endless selves emerges. It’s not just one reflection, one image, one identification; it is a loss in time, not only of oneself but through others as well.

[Turn away from the mirror slightly, thinking aloud as if to the audience.]
The mirror is not only a place of meditation, nor photographs only about the self. It is as if these reflections say something beyond ego, more about one's surroundings and the times.

In these mirrors, I am not just pointing to tales of one era; it is about history, personal and public history. The gaze is shaped by social struggles, not merely myths, the weight of past, hopes of future and expectations projected onto us.

[Slowly put the jacket back on, assuming a stance that seems both familiar and changed, as if embodying a new understanding.]
Perhaps the question is the ritual—the gazes, the selves, the time.

[Look deeply into the mirror once more, then close their eyes briefly.]
I see myself and the Aula room reflected though in time, mutable times. I see my reflection in others, and I capture a moment of time—the impossible becomes possible

About the artwork

Working Title: In this work, I reflect on the way in which Wien Museum affirms the position of the Minnesang poet. However, the artist and their social positions in the wall painting / fresco remain anonymous in today’s museum presentation in relation to the social structure of the 14th century.

Working on the historical and social relationship between now and the Middle Ages, I used my smartphone to take photographs (colored, black and white), then drew with chalk pastel colour on the photographs that are details of the wall-painting in the Neidhartfestsaal, with endless possibilities for arranging them.

My aim is to deconstruct the performative narrative of the “play” the museum showed about the painting and social history.

252 × 210 cm.

Exhibition view at Schillerplatz Vienna.

(c) Jakob Grabher.

About the artwork

Questions of Cosmopolitanism and Boundaries of Space in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna: The Relationship Between Art Spaces and the Policy of Inclusion and Exclusion in them, 1994–2020, 2020.

Installation, book, drawings, sketches with different materials, notes & texts. Various sizes and different materials. Exhibition view at Viktoria Space, Vienna.

This thesis investigates how the art context and the educational discourses allow and produce “third spaces” at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

The thesis starts from thinking about the following dualisms in order to blur the lines between them. These dualisms are: art sphere – legal system, art – theory, West – East, exclusion – inclusion, necro-politics – biopower and drawing–writing.

The method is based on the process of drawing, which highlights the possibilities of “the third spaces” that are generated from the similarities among such dualism whether one puts it West-East or drawing-writing.

Acknowledgment: Academy of Fine Arts; Andreas Spiegl; Veronika Dirnhofer; Katrin Schmiderer; Maria Gleu; Mathias Kropfitsch; Anna Petschinka; Emilia Lichtenwagner; Eszter Katalin; Lioba Kasper; Simon Nagy; Laura Nitsch; Lisl Ponger.

(c) Jakob Grabher.

About the artwork

ON BELIEF: CULTURAL HERITAGE.

(WORK IN PROGRESS, 2024): The sketches and studies presented here are composed of paper, plaster and soft tone. They include part of the text in plaster and one of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Protection of Cultural Heritage.

All the materials used in this work are touch-sensitive, fragile and dry in the air.

In these sketches, I am interested in the priority given by UNESCO to tangible cultural heritage (historical buildings, architecture, objects, artefacts) as opposed to intangible cultural heritage (language, oral history/folk tales, performance and dance).

Acknowledgment: Emilia Lichtenwagner; Jens Kastner; Steffi Alte; Veronika Dirnhofer; The Drawing Class.

courtesy of Jakob Grabher.

About the artwork

Conversation, 2017 with: Maren Blume, Peter Haselmayer, valentin häckl, Samuel Hbicht, Laura Nitsch, Ben Owen-Browne.

Photographs: a selection from the series In Conversation — shot with a Sony Alpha.

(c) Marwa Abou Hatab, 2017.

„Ein Zitat von Frantz Fanon aus Black Skin, White Masks tauchte während ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit Texten über das Buch des afro-karibischen Psychiaters und Vordenkers der Dekolonisation immer wieder auf – stets hervorgehoben und deshalb gelb unterlegt.

Text by Andrea Winklbauer in Mentoring programme publication 2023, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien.

About the artwork

Using mixed media, photography combined with digital drawing, I engaged with the dynamic interactions between the foreign and the familiar, offering a contemporary perspective on centuries-old narratives. Through visual composition and symbolism, the works invite viewers to critically examine their own perceptions of history, identity, and cultural boundaries.

In 2016, my works Ferdinand II., Verfremdung I., and Verfremdung II. were part of a collaboration with Schloss Ambras Innsbruck and curator Katharina Seidl. Inspired by the historical Ambraser collections of Archduke Ferdinand II., these pieces explore the interplay between identity, cultural displacement, and making meaning.

Mixed media: photography combined with digital drawing.

2016, Mixed Media.

Artwork: Ferdinand II., Verfremdung I., Verfremdung II., mixed media, digital print, 2016.

Exhibition context: Schloss Ambras Innsbruck.

About the artwork

As part of my residency in Vorarlberg, Austira, in the Alps, I worked on this sketchbook while hiking and collecting impressions with colleagues from Klassezeichnen. This sketchbook is part of those experiences—drawings and notes shaped by the landscape and moments shared during our hikes.

During the residency, I wrote a poem, which I later deconstructed and performed as part of my thesis research prologue in 2020.

In the summer of 2018, during the second half of the residency, I had a sunstroke during one of the hikes. This affected my perception and shaped how I drew and wrote; traces of that experience remain in the sketchbook through fragmented lines and thoughts.

For the online presentation, I mixed natural sounds—wind, grass, and trees—drawing on open-access recordings inspired by the nature of Vorarlberg.

About the artwork

Medium: diverse media including pastel, chalk, pen, ink, and colored accents. Size: various formats, including A3 and A5.

This is a drawing exercise of bodily experience that took place in the Museum Quartier as part of the drawing seminar attended in spring 2018. No photographs of the models were taken for privacy reasons.

Documentation: Jakob Grabher / Photo Laboratory Akbild.

About the artwork

On Perception: I worked on this drawing series during the pandemic in 2020. It continued my ongoing art practice, but with a deeper focus on body knowledge in relation to the digital realm — specifically, how we perceive performance and cinema through the 2D screen.

During this time, I was also in conversation with two fellow artists, Emilia and Janine, and these exchanges shaped the way I explored perception and presence within digital spaces.

Material: chalk pastel color; ink on cartons 300g.

Dimension: A4, A1, A2.

Acknowledgment: Veronika Dirnhofer, Janine Muckermann, Emilia Lichtenwagner.

About the artwork

Participation in the group exhibition Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG.

This page now includes the full public image album currently visible on the linked project page.

CV

1990, SY

Member of IG Bildende Kunst – the advocacy association of visual artists in Austria.

Member of the Research Catalogue – international platform for artistic research.

marwa.a.hatab@gmail.com

Short Bio

Marwa Abou Hatab is an artist and researcher working across drawing, installation, photography, text, performance, and moving image. She is currently pursuing Ph.D. studies in Philosophy and Diploma studies in Fine Arts in the Drawing Class at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She holds a Master in Critical Studies from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Damascus.

Her work explores hybridity, third spaces, identity, memory, language, perception, cultural heritage, and the relationship between personal experience and public history. She has participated in exhibitions including Liminal Kondition at Kunst:werk St. Pölten and Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and she has received several grants and awards from the Academy, including a project grant and a recognition award for academic work.

She participated in the Art Mentoring Program of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as a mentee of Nela Eggenberger.

Education

2022 / ongoing
Institute for Art and Cultural Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Beginning of Ph.D. studies in Philosophy
2020 / ongoing
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Beginning of Diploma studies in Fine Arts, Drawing Class
2017 / 2020
Institute for Art and Cultural Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Master in Critical Studies (completed)
2008 / 2012
Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (completed)
2011
New Horizon Institute, Damascus, Syria
Six-month graphic design training in Adobe (completed)
2013
New Horizon Institute, Damascus, Syria
Six-month graphic design training in Adobe (completed)

Awards & Grants (Selection)

01 / 2023
– 01 / 2024
Art Mentoring Program, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Mentee of Nela Eggenberger
2021
Project grant, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2020
Recognition Award for Academic Work, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2017 / 2020
Student grant, Scholarship Office Vienna
2017 / 2018
The 2nd Year Scholarship, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Exhibitions & Artistic Activities (Selection)

2025
Group exhibition
“Liminal Kondition”, Kunst:werk St. Pölten. Curated by Mariella Lehner
2023
Group exhibition
“Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG” – Exhibit Eschenbachgasse, Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Curated by Veronika Dirnhofer & Steffe Alte
2021
Implementation of a workshop concept with Barbara Juch
for the workshop series “Drawing is Political” in the SOHO STUDIOS, Vienna
2020
Panel discussion & group exhibition
10 Years of Critical Studies – A discussion round on the Master’s degree program; Release Big Critical Energy – Publication of the MA Critical Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2020
Publication of the MA Critical Studies
Release Big Critical Energy – Publication of the MA Critical Studies, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2019
Group exhibition
Rundgang, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, exhibition of the Drawing Class. Curated by Veronika Dirnhofer & Steffe Alte
2018
Workshop
“Wissen” with Lisl Ponger, as part of Wienwoche
2017
Group exhibition
“Bis hierhin und nicht weiter: Death and Capitalism”
2017
Gallery assistant (internship), Hinterland Galerie
Collaboration on the exhibition ATTOKOUSSY, Morocco – Vienna
2017
Gallery assistant (internship), Hinterland Galerie
Collaboration on the exhibition OSMAN AHMED: My Line is a Living Memory, Vienna
2017
Gallery assistant (internship), Hinterland Galerie
Collaboration on the exhibition MICHAL GLIKSON: The Australindopak Archive, Vienna

Language Skills

ArabicGermanEnglish

Other

09 / 2022
– 09 / 2023
Support for war-displaced students and researchers in finding study and work opportunities
(together with the Austrian Students’ Union / ÖH)
2018 / 2021
Volunteer work with the Red Cross, Vienna
2017
Volunteer work with the Red Cross, Innsbruck
2012 / 2013
Support for the editorial team of Radio Baladna in preparing graphics and texts
The program focused on civil rights and social life in Damascus and Syria during the war.

1990, SY

Mitglied der IG Bildende Kunst – Interessenvertretung der bildenden Künstler:innen in Österreich.

Mitglied des Research Catalogue – internationale Plattform für künstlerische Forschung.

marwa.a.hatab@gmail.com

Kurzbio

Marwa Abou Hatab ist Künstlerin und Forscherin und arbeitet mit Zeichnung, Installation, Fotografie, Text, Performance und Bewegtbild. Derzeit absolviert sie ein Ph.D.-Studium in Philosophie sowie das Diplomstudium Bildende Kunst in der Zeichenklasse an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Sie hat einen Master in Critical Studies an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien und einen Bachelor of Arts der Universität Damaskus.

Ihre Arbeit befasst sich mit Hybridität, dritten Räumen, Identität, Erinnerung, Sprache, Wahrnehmung, kulturellem Erbe und dem Verhältnis zwischen persönlicher Erfahrung und öffentlicher Geschichte. Ihre Arbeiten waren unter anderem in Liminal Kondition im Kunst:werk St. Pölten und Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG an der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien zu sehen. Zudem erhielt sie mehrere Förderungen, Stipendien und Auszeichnungen der Akademie, darunter eine Projektförderung und einen Würdigungspreis für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten.

Von 2023 bis 2024 nahm sie am Art Mentoring Program der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien als Mentee von Nela Eggenberger teil.

Ausbildung

2022 / laufend
Institut für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Beginn des Doktoratsstudiums Ph.D. in Philosophie
2020 / laufend
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Beginn des Diplomstudiums Bildende Kunst, Zeichnen Klasse
2017 / 2020
Institut für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Master in Critical Studies (abgeschlossen)
2008 / 2012
Bildender Kunst, Fakultät der Bildenden Künste, Universität Damaskus
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (abgeschlossen)
2011
New Horizon Institute, Damaskus, Syrien
sechsmonatige Grafik Design Ausbildung zu Adobe (abgeschlossen)
2013
New Horizon Institute, Damaskus, Syrien
sechsmonatige Grafik Design Ausbildung zu Adobe (abgeschlossen)

Auszeichnungen & Förderungen (Auswahl)

01 / 2023
– 01 / 2024
Mentoring-Programm Kunst der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
Mentee von Nela Eggenberger
2021
Projektförderung, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
2020
Würdigungspreise für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
2017 / 2020
Studienbeihilfe der Stipendienstelle Wien
2017 / 2018
The 2nd Year Scholarship, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien

Ausstellungen & künstlerische Tätigkeiten (Auswahl)

2025
Gruppenausstellung
„Liminal Kondition“, Kunst:werk St. Pölten. Kuratiert von: Mariella Lehner
2023
Gruppenausstellung
„Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG“ – Exhibit Eschenbachgasse, Bildende Kunst, Akademie der bildenden Künste. Kuratiert von: Veronika Dirnhofer & Steffe Alte
2021
Durchführung eines Workshopkonzeptes mit Barbara Juch
für die Workshopreihe „Zeichnen ist Politisch“ in den SOHO STUDIOS, Wien
2020
Eine Diskussionsrunde & Gruppenausstellung
10 Years of Critical Studies – Eine Diskussionsrunde zum Masterstudiengang; Release Big Critical Energy – Publikation des MA Critical Studies, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien
2020
Publikation des MA Critical Studies
Release Big Critical Energy – Publikation des MA Critical Studies, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien
2019
Gruppenausstellung
Rundgang Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien, Ausstellung der Zeichenklasse. Kuratiert von: Veronica Dirnhofer & Steffe Alte
2018
Workshop
„Wissen“ mit Lisl Ponger, im Rahmen der Wienwoche
2017
Gruppenausstellung
„Bis hierhin und nicht weiter: Death and Capitalism“
2017
Galerieassistentin (Praktikum), Hinterland Galerie
Mitarbeit an der Ausstellung ATTOKOUSSY, Morocco – Wien
2017
Galerieassistentin (Praktikum), Hinterland Galerie
Mitarbeit an der Ausstellung OSMAN AHMED: My Line is a Living Memory, Wien
2017
Galerieassistentin (Praktikum), Hinterland Galerie
Mitarbeit an der Ausstellung MICHAL GLIKSON: The Australindopak Archive, Wien

Sprachkenntnisse

ArabischDeutschEnglisch

Sonstiges

09 / 2022
– 09 / 2023
Unterstützung von kriegsgeflüchteten Studierenden und Forscher:innen für Studien- und Arbeitsmöglichkeiten
(gemeinsam mit der Österreichischen Hochschüler:innenschaft / ÖH)
2018 / 2021
Freiwillige Mitarbeit beim Roten Kreuz, Wien
2017
Freiwillige Mitarbeit beim Roten Kreuz, Innsbruck
2012 / 2013
Unterstützung der Redaktion von Radio Baladna bei der Erstellung von Grafiken und Texten
Der Schwerpunkt der Sendung lag auf den Bürgerrechten und dem sozialen Leben in Damaskus und Syrien zur Zeit des Krieges.

Blog

In solidarity with civilians and children under armed conflict

In solidarity with civilians and children under armed conflict

A message of solidarity with civilians and children living under armed conflict in the Middle East and around the world. Every civilian life matters. Every child deserves safety, dignity, and peace.

For support: UNICEF and child protection partners for children and caregivers; UNHCR and partners for refugees and displaced adults; ICRC / Red Cross / Red Crescent for separated families; and WHO-supported mental health and psychosocial services for people affected by conflict.

Thank you, GC Arbenz, for your care and support in sharing this message.
#Solidarity #Peace #Civilians #Children #Humanity

رسالة تضامن مع المدنيين\ات والأطفال الذين يعيشون تحت وطأة النزاع المسلح في الشرق الأوسط وحول العالم. حياة كل مدني\ة مهمة، وكل طفل\ة تستحق الأمان والكرامة والسلام

للدعم: اليونيسف وشركاء حماية الطفل للأطفال ومقدّمي الرعاية؛ المفوضية السامية لشؤون اللاجئين وشركاؤها للاجئين والبالغين النازحين؛ اللجنة الدولية للصليب الأحمر / الصليب الأحمر / الهلال الأحمر للعائلات المشتتة؛ وخدمات الصحة النفسية والدعم النفسي الاجتماعي المدعومة من منظمة الصحة العالمية للمتأثرين بالنزاع.

شكراً لـ GC Arbenz على الرعاية والدعم في مشاركة هذه الرسالة.
#تضامن #سلام #أطفال #إنسانية

Statements

Artist Statement

I am an artist and researcher working across drawing, photography, text, installation, performance, and moving image. My practice is rooted in hybridity and in forms that move through and beyond fixed oppositions. I am interested in how identities, languages, images, and bodies are shaped in relation to space, memory, institutions, and historical conditions.

Drawing is central to my practice, not only as a medium but as a way of thinking. I work with drawing as a method that allows me to move between image and text, reflection and analysis, embodiment and distance. Rather than reinforcing binaries, I am drawn to in-between states, transitional forms, and third spaces in which categories become unstable and can be rethought.

My work often develops from personal, biographical, and subjective experience, while remaining connected to broader sociopolitical structures. I am interested in how art, education, and institutional frameworks shape what can be seen, said, valued, or remembered. In this sense, I approach artistic practice as a space where perception can shift and where dominant structures can be questioned rather than simply repeated.

I am especially interested in hybrid artistic forms. In my diploma work, I engage a “Zwischen-Kunst” medium, such as photography-drawing, as a method for reflecting on cultural goods, their production of value, and their reception. This interest in hybridity is not only formal; it is also conceptual. I work through spaces where meanings are not fixed, where identities remain relational, and where oppositions can be exceeded through layered, unstable, and shifting forms.

I understand art as a place for inquiry: a place to inhabit complexity, to remain with ambiguity, and to create forms that allow for reflection rather than closure.

Short Statement

I am an artist and researcher working across drawing, photography, text, installation, performance, and moving image. My practice explores hybridity, third spaces, identity, memory, language, perception, and the relationship between personal experience and public history.

Extended Bio

Marwa Abou Hatab is an artist and researcher based in Vienna. Her practice moves between drawing, installation, photography, text, performance, and moving image, and is grounded in questions of identity, memory, perception, language, migration, and historical space. She works with drawing both as a medium and as a method of inquiry, often developing works that move between visual form, critical reflection, and embodied experience.

She is currently pursuing Ph.D. studies in Philosophy at the Institute for Art and Cultural Studies and Diploma studies in Fine Arts in the Drawing Class at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She completed a Master in Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Damascus. Her education also includes graphic design training in Adobe at the New Horizon Institute in Damascus.

Her work has been shown in group exhibitions including Liminal Kondition at Kunst:werk St. Pölten and Ich kann leider auch nicht. LG at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Earlier activities include the workshop series Drawing is Political at SOHO STUDIOS, Release Big Critical Energy in connection with the MA Critical Studies program, the Rundgang exhibition of the Drawing Class, and the workshop Wissen with Lisl Ponger as part of Wienwoche.

Abou Hatab has received a project grant from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, a recognition award for academic work, a student grant from the Vienna Scholarship Office, and the 2nd Year Scholarship of the Academy. From 2023 to 2024, she participated in the Art Mentoring Program of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as a mentee of Nela Eggenberger. She is also a member of IG Bildende Kunst and the Research Catalogue.

Confession

this Disposition is ideal for Digital Display.

When printing; the content on the margins bewusst/ unbewusst becomes transparent to the naked eyes.

consciously/ unconsciously
deliberately/undeliberately
willingly/unwillingly
recklessly/ carefully
daringly/ carefully
indecorously/ demurely
pretentiously/ politely
unrefinedely/ courtly

News

“DANCING WITHIN DANCING WITHOUT,” The symposium was held last month. It included a lecture performance on cosmopolitan norms and third spaces in Akbild, with lectures by Sarah Kolb on identities and performance, and Flavia Mazzanti on post-anthropocene.

The performance by Sara Lanner was followed by a keynote address by Ruth Sonderegger, which reflected on Fred Moten’s writings. The event was held at Viktoria, Vienna (Viktoriagasse 5, 1150, Wien) and was curated by Guilherme Mata and Sarah Kolb.

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