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Artium Museoa, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country presents the exhibition Marwa Arsanios. The Land Shall Not Be Owned [A1 Gallery, until 12 April 2026], a solo exhibition by an artist of Lebanese descent, Marwa Arsanios (Washington, DC, 1978). The exhibition features the series of 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 Colombia. 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 (Turin) and the Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona). Artium Museoa has produced a publication in its #Hitzak series to accompany the exhibition, featuring a conversation between Marwa Arsanios and Agustín Pérez Rubio (Valencia, 1972), the exhibition’s curator, as well as an essay by the writer and cultural theorist Ana Teixeira Pinto. To mark the opening, the museum is hosting a public encounter with the artist and curator at 6 pm today, with free admission until full capacity is reached.
Artium Museoa presents The Land Shall Not Be Owned, a solo exhibition by an artist of Lebanese descent, Marwa Arsanios (Washington, DC, 1978). Co-produced with the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin) and the Haus für Kunst Uri (Altdorf, Switzerland), the exhibition presents the series of pieces entitled Who Is Afraid of Ideology? (2017-ongoing), a project in which Arsanios uses videos, works on paper and textiles to examine the reappropriation of land, its exploitation and the local struggle for its recovery in various geographical areas in the Middle East and Colombia. The exhibition showcases its fifth and most recent chapter, Right of Passage (2025), co-produced by Artium Museoa in collaboration with the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation (Turin) and the Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona).
Who Is Afraid of Ideology? is an ongoing investigation into the politics of land distribution and extraction, focusing on local struggles to reclaim the land in Iraq, northeastern Syria, Colombia and Lebanon. Throughout its five documentary pieces, Arsanios engages with different forms of organisation and self-defence within various female communities, exploring the ways in which they challenge patriarchal structures. The result is a collective portrait, a mapping in which ecological, feminist, indigenous and decolonial perspectives converge to shape new practices of political autonomy.
Through Who Is Afraid of Ideology?, Arsanios rethinks the form and function of video. 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 between the filmmaker and her subjects to be heard.
Recent solo exhibitions by the artist include Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (2025); BAK Utrecht (2024); Kunsthalle Bratislava (2023); Heidelberger Kunstverein (2023); Mosaic Rooms, London (2022); Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati (2021); Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana (2018); Beirut Art Centre (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016). Her work has also been featured in many group exhibitions, including Documenta 15 (2022); Mardin Biennial (2022); Sydney Biennale film programme (2022); 3rd Autostrada Biennale, Pristina (2021), and 11th Berlin Biennale (2020), among others.
Artium Museoa has also produced a new publication in its #Hitzak series to accompany the exhibition, featuring a conversation between Marwa Arsanios and Agustín Pérez Rubio about the exhibition as well as an essay by the writer and cultural theorist Ana Teixeira Pinto entitled “Who’s Afraid of Ideology?”.
As part of the exhibition’s opening, the museum is hosting a public encounter between the artist and exhibition’s curator at 6 pm today. Likewise in conjunction with the exhibition, the museum has also organised a bertso-saio on Saturday 8 November at 12 pm, in collaboration with the consonni publishing house and with the participation of Uxue Alberdi, Sustrai Colina and Unai Iturriaga. Free admission until full capacity is reached.