Artist talk: Alia Farid

Meet the third recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Ward, Alia Farid, in conversation with curators Caroline Ugelstad and María Inés Rodríguez.

The exhibition at Henie Onstad is Alia Farid's largest exhibition to date – and the first in the Nordics. Through her art, Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican Farid wants to highlight suppressed narratives, and she is concerned with migration and the change of people, places, traditions and material cultures as a result of geopolitical events.

The exhibition title Bneid Al Gar, Arabic for land of tar, refers to Farid's experiences growing up in an area of Kuwait where large bruise-like stains of oil once punctuated the surface of the earth.

Farid's practice cuts across visual expressions, techniques and craft traditions. The production is closely linked to the themes she investigates. The exhibition presents a selection of carpets from the series Elsewhere (2023), five sculptures from the series In Lieu of What Is (2022), the installation Palm Orchard (2022) and several video works, as well as newly produced paper works.