Helene Kazan is an inter-disciplinary artist, writer and researcher. Her work investigates ‘risk’ as an integrated limit condition of conflict and capitalism, analysed at the intersection of international law, architecture, and the human experience of violence, observed and argued through the frame of 'poetic testimony'.
CV
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Fellow at the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics, The New School, New York. (2018-2020)
Recipient of the CHASE AHRC Award for PhD project at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2014-2018)
Research Fellow on the European Research Council funded project Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2012-2015)
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy from the Centre for Research Architecture, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2014-2018)
Masters of the Arts with Distinction in Research Architecture, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2011-2013)
Bachelor of the Arts with First Class Honours (Distinction), Wimbledon School of Art. (2001-2004)
TEACHING AND WORK EXPERIENCE
Lecturer in Fine Art and Critical Theory, School of the Arts, Faculty of Technology Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University. (2019-ongoing)
Visiting Lecturer in Media Studies, Department of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London. (2018-ongoing)
Associate Lecturer, Department of Visual Culture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2016-2018)
Associate Lecturer in Critical Studies, Hertfordshire University, England. (2016-2017)
Lead Researcher, The World Justice Project funded ‘Modelling Kivalina', Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2012-2014)
Research and Writing, Heatherwick Studio, London. (2013 - 2014)
Educations Co-ordinator, Serpentine Gallery 89plus Marathon, London. (2013)
Project Administrator, Bennetts Associates Architects, London. (2007-2008)
Curator and Exhibitions Co-ordinator, GXgallery, London. (2006-2007)
Project Co-ordinator, Platform3 - CreativeCapital, London. (2006)
Internship, Corrigan, Soundy and Kilaiditi Architects. (2005-2006)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
A Domestic Image of Preemption, Solo exhibition at Lubomirov Easton, London. (2013)
...Delicate Conceptual Material...,Solo exhibition at Jerwood Project Space, London. (2010)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS
Art Activisms Research Workshop #04 (Practice-Based Research and Social Impact), screening and panel discussion at Birmingham School of Art. (2020)
AWAN Film Festival, screening and panel discussion at Rich Mix, London. (2020)
They are Impersonal, yet Habitation is Augmented by the Pressures of Their Indifference: A Group Show, curated by Sara el Adl at Gypsum Gallery, Egypt. (2019)
Points of Contact, The Arab Centre for Architecture, The British Council, Lebanon, and The Goethe Institute, Beirut. (2018)
Saout Radio broadcast of ‘Points of Contact’ for Documenta14. (2017)
City and the City, curated by Natasha Marie Llorens at the New School Gallery, NYC. (2016)
Space Interrupted curated by Clare Sheppeard, and Amal Khalaf for Ibraaz, a leading critical forum on visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East. (2015)
Frames of War, curated by Natasha Marie Llorens at Momenta, NYC. (2015)
Urban Encounters, screening and panel discussion at The Tate Britain, London. (2014)
FORENSIS, curated by Eyal Weizman and Anselm Franke at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. (2014)
Exposure, Beirut Art Centre, Beirut. (2013)
It’s Always Too Late, The Showroom, London. (2013)
Social Structures, Screening and artists talk at Batroun Projects, Lebanon. (2013)
PAVILION presents AUDITORIUM, Dilston Grove/LIMBO, London. (2012-13)
Troubling Space: The Summer Sessions, curated by Helga Just Christoffersen and Natasha Marie Llorens, London. (2012)
HOUSE 2012, curated by Celia Davies, Director of Photoworks as part of HOUSE Festival, Pheonix Gallery, Brighton. (2012)
Untitled Repetition, curated by Richard Ducker at Angus Hughes Gallery and Fieldgate Gallery. (2012)
Architectural Research Exhibitions Series 1 - Crystal City, parallel exhibition to Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul. (2011)
Ever Remote, touring exhibition at Site Gallery (Sheffield)/Crescents Arts (Scarborough)/South Square Gallery, Bradford. (2011)
Invasive Alien Species, Venice Biennial British Council Fringe Exhibition, Venice. (2011)
Rhyzomatic, Departure Gallery, Southall, London. (2010)
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London. (2010)
AbbaraCadabra Mardin Biennial, Turkey. (2010)
The Middle of Nowhere, Departure Gallery, Southall. (2010)
Off Cut, Site specific installation at Metropolitan Workshop as part of the London Festival of Architecture, London. (2010)
Trident Way 2, The Southall Project, Departure Gallery, Southall. (2009)
Fourdayslong, C4RD, London. (2009)
Something I don’t do, Flowers East, London. (2009)
Trash Vortex, Hackney Wicked: TangentProjects, London. (2009)
V22 Presents: The Sculpture Show, The Biscuit Factory, London. (2009)
Notions of Drawing, ARTBUST, London. (2006)
Wimbledon School of Art Degree Show, London. (2004)
EVENTS AND PUBLIC LECTURES
Sensing Violence, Curated Panel including Helene Kazan, Jessika Khazrik, Fadi Mansour, Mhamad Safa at Birkbeck Law Annual Conference on 'Dystopias Here and Now: Critical Thought at the End of Time’, London. (2019)
Under Multiple Suns, Artists Talk, School of the Arts, Oxford Brookes University. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for 'Between Traces and Durable Marks: Researching Coloniality in the Middle East’, University of Vienna. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for Digital Earth Symposium in partnership with Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. (2019)
Speculative Legal Futures and the Poetic Testimony of Violence, Lecture Performance at UnionDocs, World Records with The Vera List Centre, NYC. (2019)
Artist Talk at Ruskin College of Art, Oxford University. (2019)
Panel discussion for ‘Listen to the Artists! Law/Art/Justice’ at The Westminster Law & Theory Lab. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for symposium ‘Testimony as Environment: Violence, Aesthetics, Agency’ at the LSE. (2019)
Artist Talk to launch the 2018-20 Vera List Fellowship in Art and Politics at The New School, NYC. (2018)
Imperiled House, Lecture Performance at the America University of Beirut, Lebanon. (2017)
Imperiled House, Lecture Performance and Artists Residency at the Serpentine Gallery, London. (2017)
(De)constructing Risk, Remote Public Lecture at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow. (2016)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Middle of Where, East of What? New Geographies of Conflict’ conference at ICI, Berlin. (2016)
Lecture Performance at Grand Union invited by They Are Here, Birmingham. (2016)
Presentation and panel discussion at XIII. Internationales Bauhaus-Kolloquium, Bauhaus, Weimar. (2016)
Lecture performance and panel discussion for ‘fig-2 22/50: Pre-enactment between reality and fiction’ at the ICA, London. (2015)
Perspectives of Home and Deconstructing Risk, Artists Talks at KEX Studio as part of a selected residency, Vienna. (2015)
(De)constructing Risk: A Domestic Image of the Future, Public Lecture at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. (2015)
Remote Lecture Performance for SOUND/PLACE exhibition, London. (2015)
Presentation and panel discussion for 'Archives of the Future' conference at University of Westminster, London. (2014)
Artist Talk for the Fine Art Department, Wimbledon College of Art. (2014)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘The Public Image’, International Visual Sociology Conference at Goldsmiths, University of London. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)security’, International Conference, University of Lisbon, Portugal. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Spaces of Reckoning’, Symposium Westminster University. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for launch of Forensic Futures. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for 16 Spaces talk at LOW&HIGH’s curated by TRANSPORT and Zbigniew Kotkiewicz as part of Folkestone Triennial. (2011)
Panel discussion for Market of Ideas - Parade: Critical Practice, Chelsea Art College: Parade, London. (2010)
Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming...70s cover band and neo-iberalism study group initiated by Hiwa K. Performances include at The Serpentine Gallery, RCA, School of Ideas, 113 Dalston Lane, Tour of the Netherlands including If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, CASCO, Nottingham Contemporary, Shishawi restaurant, The Showroom, Wyspa Institute as part of Alternativa Festival, Poland. (2010-2013)
RESIDENCIES
Imperiled House – Artists Residency and Public Program at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2017)
Artists Residency at the Marra:tein, Beirut (2016)
Perspectives of Home – Artist in Residence selected by Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, in collaboration with Atfal Ahdath art collective and Lina Morawetz. (2015)
Artists Residency and Film School at Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica, with the support of Openvizor. (2015)
Open Shop: Artist Residency, Istanbul, in collaboration with Openvizor. (2011)
Artist Residency & Community Project to convert an unused garden. Windsor Boys School. (2005-2006)
CURATING
Points of Contact – Exhibition and public program at the Goethe Institute, in collaboration the Arab Center for Architecture and the British Council Lebanon (2018)
From Above and Below – An interdisciplinary event curated by Helene Kazan at Mosaic Rooms, London. (2015)
InDesign – Exhibition and public program co-curated by Helene Kazan and Louise Ashcroft at Departure Gallery, London. (2013)
Art of Occupation – Exhibition inspired by ‘Hollow Land – Israel’s Architecture of Occupation’ written by Eyal Weizman, to launch The Working Rooms & TangentProjects in Hackney, London. (2008)
COLLECTIVES AND READING GROUPS
Creative Methodologies and Law: Critical Feminist Reading Group, Hosted by Alice Ella and Helene Kazan (2019-continued)
AltMFA, a radical educational program established by artists for artists – (2010-continued)
PRESS
Helene Kazan in conversation with Vinita Gondinvarajan from Global Research Network (GNR). (2019)
Article by Ash Moniz about exhibition ‘They Are Impersonal, Yet Habitation is Augmented by the Pressures of Their Indifference’ at Gypsum Gallery, curated by Sara El Adl. Featuring Mahmoud Khaled, Basma Alsharif, Helene Kazan, Yazan El Zubi, Samir El Kordy, and Neil Beloufa. (2019)
Political, forensic, hi-tech: how 'research architecture' is redefining art by the Guardian Newspaper. (2019)
Six Pillars - Helene Kazan in conversation between Fari Bradley, a focus on contemporary Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian sound, art and culture for Resonance FM. (2018)
Conjuring the Anxiety of Domestic Spaces During War' Helene Kazan in conversation with Susan Silas for Hyperallergic. (2015)
The Right to Shelter - Helene Kazan in conversation with Amal Khalaf for Ibraaz. (2015)
CV
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Fellow at the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics, The New School, New York. (2018-2020)
Recipient of the CHASE AHRC Award for PhD project at the Centre for Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2014-2018)
Research Fellow on the European Research Council funded project Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2012-2015)
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy from the Centre for Research Architecture, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2014-2018)
Masters of the Arts with Distinction in Research Architecture, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2011-2013)
Bachelor of the Arts with First Class Honours (Distinction), Wimbledon School of Art. (2001-2004)
TEACHING AND WORK EXPERIENCE
Lecturer in Fine Art and Critical Theory, School of the Arts, Faculty of Technology Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University. (2019-ongoing)
Visiting Lecturer in Media Studies, Department of Architecture, Royal College of Art, London. (2018-ongoing)
Associate Lecturer, Department of Visual Culture, Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2016-2018)
Associate Lecturer in Critical Studies, Hertfordshire University, England. (2016-2017)
Lead Researcher, The World Justice Project funded ‘Modelling Kivalina', Goldsmiths College, University of London. (2012-2014)
Research and Writing, Heatherwick Studio, London. (2013 - 2014)
Educations Co-ordinator, Serpentine Gallery 89plus Marathon, London. (2013)
Project Administrator, Bennetts Associates Architects, London. (2007-2008)
Curator and Exhibitions Co-ordinator, GXgallery, London. (2006-2007)
Project Co-ordinator, Platform3 - CreativeCapital, London. (2006)
Internship, Corrigan, Soundy and Kilaiditi Architects. (2005-2006)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
A Domestic Image of Preemption, Solo exhibition at Lubomirov Easton, London. (2013)
...Delicate Conceptual Material...,Solo exhibition at Jerwood Project Space, London. (2010)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS
Art Activisms Research Workshop #04 (Practice-Based Research and Social Impact), screening and panel discussion at Birmingham School of Art. (2020)
AWAN Film Festival, screening and panel discussion at Rich Mix, London. (2020)
They are Impersonal, yet Habitation is Augmented by the Pressures of Their Indifference: A Group Show, curated by Sara el Adl at Gypsum Gallery, Egypt. (2019)
Points of Contact, The Arab Centre for Architecture, The British Council, Lebanon, and The Goethe Institute, Beirut. (2018)
Saout Radio broadcast of ‘Points of Contact’ for Documenta14. (2017)
City and the City, curated by Natasha Marie Llorens at the New School Gallery, NYC. (2016)
Space Interrupted curated by Clare Sheppeard, and Amal Khalaf for Ibraaz, a leading critical forum on visual culture in North Africa and the Middle East. (2015)
Frames of War, curated by Natasha Marie Llorens at Momenta, NYC. (2015)
Urban Encounters, screening and panel discussion at The Tate Britain, London. (2014)
FORENSIS, curated by Eyal Weizman and Anselm Franke at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. (2014)
Exposure, Beirut Art Centre, Beirut. (2013)
It’s Always Too Late, The Showroom, London. (2013)
Social Structures, Screening and artists talk at Batroun Projects, Lebanon. (2013)
PAVILION presents AUDITORIUM, Dilston Grove/LIMBO, London. (2012-13)
Troubling Space: The Summer Sessions, curated by Helga Just Christoffersen and Natasha Marie Llorens, London. (2012)
HOUSE 2012, curated by Celia Davies, Director of Photoworks as part of HOUSE Festival, Pheonix Gallery, Brighton. (2012)
Untitled Repetition, curated by Richard Ducker at Angus Hughes Gallery and Fieldgate Gallery. (2012)
Architectural Research Exhibitions Series 1 - Crystal City, parallel exhibition to Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul. (2011)
Ever Remote, touring exhibition at Site Gallery (Sheffield)/Crescents Arts (Scarborough)/South Square Gallery, Bradford. (2011)
Invasive Alien Species, Venice Biennial British Council Fringe Exhibition, Venice. (2011)
Rhyzomatic, Departure Gallery, Southall, London. (2010)
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London. (2010)
AbbaraCadabra Mardin Biennial, Turkey. (2010)
The Middle of Nowhere, Departure Gallery, Southall. (2010)
Off Cut, Site specific installation at Metropolitan Workshop as part of the London Festival of Architecture, London. (2010)
Trident Way 2, The Southall Project, Departure Gallery, Southall. (2009)
Fourdayslong, C4RD, London. (2009)
Something I don’t do, Flowers East, London. (2009)
Trash Vortex, Hackney Wicked: TangentProjects, London. (2009)
V22 Presents: The Sculpture Show, The Biscuit Factory, London. (2009)
Notions of Drawing, ARTBUST, London. (2006)
Wimbledon School of Art Degree Show, London. (2004)
EVENTS AND PUBLIC LECTURES
Sensing Violence, Curated Panel including Helene Kazan, Jessika Khazrik, Fadi Mansour, Mhamad Safa at Birkbeck Law Annual Conference on 'Dystopias Here and Now: Critical Thought at the End of Time’, London. (2019)
Under Multiple Suns, Artists Talk, School of the Arts, Oxford Brookes University. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for 'Between Traces and Durable Marks: Researching Coloniality in the Middle East’, University of Vienna. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for Digital Earth Symposium in partnership with Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. (2019)
Speculative Legal Futures and the Poetic Testimony of Violence, Lecture Performance at UnionDocs, World Records with The Vera List Centre, NYC. (2019)
Artist Talk at Ruskin College of Art, Oxford University. (2019)
Panel discussion for ‘Listen to the Artists! Law/Art/Justice’ at The Westminster Law & Theory Lab. (2019)
Presentation and panel discussion for symposium ‘Testimony as Environment: Violence, Aesthetics, Agency’ at the LSE. (2019)
Artist Talk to launch the 2018-20 Vera List Fellowship in Art and Politics at The New School, NYC. (2018)
Imperiled House, Lecture Performance at the America University of Beirut, Lebanon. (2017)
Imperiled House, Lecture Performance and Artists Residency at the Serpentine Gallery, London. (2017)
(De)constructing Risk, Remote Public Lecture at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow. (2016)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Middle of Where, East of What? New Geographies of Conflict’ conference at ICI, Berlin. (2016)
Lecture Performance at Grand Union invited by They Are Here, Birmingham. (2016)
Presentation and panel discussion at XIII. Internationales Bauhaus-Kolloquium, Bauhaus, Weimar. (2016)
Lecture performance and panel discussion for ‘fig-2 22/50: Pre-enactment between reality and fiction’ at the ICA, London. (2015)
Perspectives of Home and Deconstructing Risk, Artists Talks at KEX Studio as part of a selected residency, Vienna. (2015)
(De)constructing Risk: A Domestic Image of the Future, Public Lecture at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. (2015)
Remote Lecture Performance for SOUND/PLACE exhibition, London. (2015)
Presentation and panel discussion for 'Archives of the Future' conference at University of Westminster, London. (2014)
Artist Talk for the Fine Art Department, Wimbledon College of Art. (2014)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘The Public Image’, International Visual Sociology Conference at Goldsmiths, University of London. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Images of Terror, Narratives of (In)security’, International Conference, University of Lisbon, Portugal. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for ‘Spaces of Reckoning’, Symposium Westminster University. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for launch of Forensic Futures. (2013)
Presentation and panel discussion for 16 Spaces talk at LOW&HIGH’s curated by TRANSPORT and Zbigniew Kotkiewicz as part of Folkestone Triennial. (2011)
Panel discussion for Market of Ideas - Parade: Critical Practice, Chelsea Art College: Parade, London. (2010)
Chicago Boys: while we were singing, they were dreaming...70s cover band and neo-iberalism study group initiated by Hiwa K. Performances include at The Serpentine Gallery, RCA, School of Ideas, 113 Dalston Lane, Tour of the Netherlands including If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, CASCO, Nottingham Contemporary, Shishawi restaurant, The Showroom, Wyspa Institute as part of Alternativa Festival, Poland. (2010-2013)
RESIDENCIES
Imperiled House – Artists Residency and Public Program at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2017)
Artists Residency at the Marra:tein, Beirut (2016)
Perspectives of Home – Artist in Residence selected by Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, in collaboration with Atfal Ahdath art collective and Lina Morawetz. (2015)
Artists Residency and Film School at Studio 174, Kingston, Jamaica, with the support of Openvizor. (2015)
Open Shop: Artist Residency, Istanbul, in collaboration with Openvizor. (2011)
Artist Residency & Community Project to convert an unused garden. Windsor Boys School. (2005-2006)
CURATING
Points of Contact – Exhibition and public program at the Goethe Institute, in collaboration the Arab Center for Architecture and the British Council Lebanon (2018)
From Above and Below – An interdisciplinary event curated by Helene Kazan at Mosaic Rooms, London. (2015)
InDesign – Exhibition and public program co-curated by Helene Kazan and Louise Ashcroft at Departure Gallery, London. (2013)
Art of Occupation – Exhibition inspired by ‘Hollow Land – Israel’s Architecture of Occupation’ written by Eyal Weizman, to launch The Working Rooms & TangentProjects in Hackney, London. (2008)
COLLECTIVES AND READING GROUPS
Creative Methodologies and Law: Critical Feminist Reading Group, Hosted by Alice Ella and Helene Kazan (2019-continued)
AltMFA, a radical educational program established by artists for artists – (2010-continued)
PRESS
Helene Kazan in conversation with Vinita Gondinvarajan from Global Research Network (GNR). (2019)
Article by Ash Moniz about exhibition ‘They Are Impersonal, Yet Habitation is Augmented by the Pressures of Their Indifference’ at Gypsum Gallery, curated by Sara El Adl. Featuring Mahmoud Khaled, Basma Alsharif, Helene Kazan, Yazan El Zubi, Samir El Kordy, and Neil Beloufa. (2019)
Political, forensic, hi-tech: how 'research architecture' is redefining art by the Guardian Newspaper. (2019)
Six Pillars - Helene Kazan in conversation between Fari Bradley, a focus on contemporary Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian sound, art and culture for Resonance FM. (2018)
Conjuring the Anxiety of Domestic Spaces During War' Helene Kazan in conversation with Susan Silas for Hyperallergic. (2015)
The Right to Shelter - Helene Kazan in conversation with Amal Khalaf for Ibraaz. (2015)