About me
Hiba G. Isleem
Artist · Architect · Researcher
I am a Palestinian artist, architect, and researcher whose journey moves from early years in Sharjah, UAE, to a present grounded in my family’s hometown of Salfit, Palestine.
My interdisciplinary practice unfolds across stop-motion animation, video, archival research, and spatial storytelling. Drawing from personal and collective memory, I explore how displacement, loss, and transformation shape Palestinian life—often through overlooked objects, ruined architecture, and fragile remnants.
Trained as an architect, I worked extensively in restoration, site management, and sustainability. The discipline of technical drawing and design continues to inform my visual language, grounding my engagement with ruins, infrastructure, and everyday materials.
My works often emerge from encounters with family archives—Hi8 and VHS tapes, photographs, oral histories—and are developed into poetic, experimental narratives that reimagine forgotten spaces and gestures.
Selected Works:
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“Numbers and Squares” (2023–2025): an interactive installation reactivating a 1990s home-recorded game show through touch, archive, and video.
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“Inside the Box” (2025): a 360° immersive video capturing time, prayer, and memory inside a single room under construction.
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“Chock-A: Memory Under the Rubble”(2022,2024): a stop-motion film following an electrical character navigating post-demolition landscapes.
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“Dance of the Dying Roots” (2024): an animation exploring the metaphor of roots under pressure, inspired by “The Dying Swan” ballet.
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“Indomie” (2024): a short video essay revealing the irony of banned instant noodles turning into war aid.
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“M’ata – The Plucker” (2023): a visceral stop-motion loop confronting movement restrictions at checkpoints.
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“Bulldozer” (2022): an archival video work exploring colonial demolition mechanisms in Haifa’s Wadi al-Saleeb.
Highlights
2025–2026 – Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship – Stuttgart, Germany.
2024 – Prince Claus Seed Award – Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2024 – Ways of Becoming: 25 years with UNIDEE – Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy.
2024 – SAWA SAWA Local Art Residency – Dar Qandeel, Tulkarem, Palestine.
2024 – MMAG Houseguest – Amman, Jordan
2024 – 8th biennale si:n 2024 –Palestine, and France.
2023 – Screenings at:
Casa Árabe, Spain | Cineteca Madrid, Spain | Darat al Funun, Jordan | A.M. Qattan Foundation, Palestine | FD-C, Madrid
2023 – UNIDEE Residency – Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy.
2022, 2025 – Tadafuq Contemporary Art Program – Palestine.
2022 – A.M. Qattan Foundation Visual Arts Studio Residency – Ramallah, Palestine.
2019 – Story “Cookie Hack”, published in Re-Worlding Ramallah anthology. Created during the Palestinian Worldbuilding: Sci-Fi Writing Workshop led by Callum Copley (Bierzeit, Palestine).