Ali El-Darsa

Ali El-Darsa works at the interface of moving image, performance, installation and sound.

His work examines structures of belonging in transnational contexts, emphasizing the specificity of time-based media’s significance to creating networked, mediated memories and narratives. His interdisciplinary research in performance opens onto fields of text, word, sign and languages, questioning collaboratively the ways in which language influences movement, thought systems and, by extension, the discourses and interpretations of a work of art, both in its matter and in a metaphorical sense. It approaches the notion of communication through its means, methods and media, whether oral, written or coded–examining the transmission of customary, historical and contemporary narratives.

El-Darsa holds a Master’s degree in Visual Studies (MVS Studio Art) from John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, Canada.

He was a fellow at Villa Aurora Residency in Los Angeles/USA (2022). He lives in Berlin/Germany, and serves as a board member of Dazibao, an art center dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary image practices in Montréal/Canada.