On 5 March, LOCALES presented a lecture, screening and conversation by and with international Palestinian artist Emily Jacir. The evening focused on the influence and impact of Italy and in particular of Rome, where Jacir has lived on and off since she was 14 years old, on her practice, excavating two decades of projects and interventions the artist has developed on Italian soil. These include three public installations in: Pietrapertosa (Basilicata), Palermo and Milan.Often staging or permanently installing work in public space, the artist has worked with photography, film, sculpture, installation and performance to reflect on collectivity, memory, migration, exclusion/inclusion, visibility/invisibility, and how these are negotiated with the body and in public space.
During the evening and throughout the following week, the exhibition spaces of MACRO hosted three of the artist’s films: Paesaggio Umano (2022), Wherever You Sow Grain (2022), and Il Mare in Mezzo – Sounds and Songs from the Mediterranean (2023). Jacir’s films emerge from more than eight years of collaboration, exchange, cultivation, and the building of an extensive network of dancers and musicians across the southern West Bank and Southern Italy, foregrounding a shared Mediterranean heritage.

Following the lecture, Jacir was in conversation with Sara Alberani and Chiara Siravo, tracing shared reflections and urgencies around public space and silenced histories.