Artworks/Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 25). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 18.05.2008, Sunday afternoon. Family visit to the Children's Home. Mrs. R. and Mr. R., mother and father, accompanied by their young nephew, visiting two kids, Jula R. and Franek R. They are all sitting on the carpet in their two children's room, surrounded by bagels, sweets and soft drinks they have bought for their children's.

Ahlam Shibli

Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 25). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 18.05.2008, Sunday afternoon. Family visit to the Children's Home. Mrs. R. and Mr. R., mother and father, accompanied by their young nephew, visiting two kids, Jula R. and Franek R. They are all sitting on the carpet in their two children's room, surrounded by bagels, sweets and soft drinks they have bought for their children's.

Photo Bartek Zalewski

Children’s Home is a series of 35 photographs of orphanages, 10 of which are in the collection of MSN. Young people do their schoolwork and perform chores around the center, but also organize their free time. Most often they are in a group. Even if one of the children does something alone, e.g. solves a Sudoku puzzle, their friends sit next to them and observe the progress. Only at bedtime do children separate from the group. Shibli’s cinematography is devoid of drama—the artist accompanies her protagonists, refraining from judging the situations she observes. Intimate scenes show the strong bonds between those living under the same roof.

 

The artist behind the work is Palestinian photographer Ahlam Shibli. She took photographs at 11 orphanages when traveling around Poland in 2008. The artist is known primarily for her depictions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, but she also works in other parts of the world. She explores the broad themes of home, belonging and exclusion, both in her native context and internationally. She examines various ways of coping with the situation of “unhoming” (as she titled her 2009 exhibition at MSN), treating the models of life she observes not as a substitute for what is absent, but as an alternative with its own unique properties. In the Polish children’s homes she visited, she was interested in the community built by young people and how they learn about each other’s needs and develop their interests in a group.

 

Shibli stresses that she does not create photo reportage. From the hundreds of images she takes in her work on a series, she chooses at most a few dozen and assembles a story on a topic of interest to her. In the Children’s Home series, she wanted to emphasize the subjectivity of children who are usually portrayed in the media as victims of abuse. This is why she did not focus on the oppressive nature of such institutions.

 

[M.P.]









RELATED ARTWORKS

See all (9)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 1). Children's Home Na Zielonym Wzgórzu. Kisielany Żmichy, 19.05.2008, Monday Morning. Darek Wróbel and Kamil Jasielewicz are the last in line to enter the bus for school.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
50.5 × 63 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 4). Children's Home Trzemiętowo, 7.10.2008, Tuesday afternoon. Gracjan Schmelter and Tomasz Brządkowski posing for the camera with the sculpture in front of the entrance of the Children's Home.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
60.7 × 50.7 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 7). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 16.05.2008, Friday afternoon. Adrian Z. arranging his bed.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
50.5 × 60.7 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 10). Educational Care Center, Bączków, 29.05.2008, Monday afternoon. Oliwia Domanska's room.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
50.5 × 64.2 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 15). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 15.05.2008, Friday afternoon. The children cleaning the Children's Home. Angelika P. and Michał I. collecting the trash after sweepeing the corridor while Paulina P. and Kasia K. are running toward the kitchen.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
64.3 × 50.5 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 28). Children's Home No 11, Warszawa, 30.05.2008, Friday afternoon. Mrs. Małgorzata Rzodkiewicz, the caretaker and director of the Children's Home, working on the bills of the Children's Home, with Mateusz Pazio doing a sudoku and Waldemar Dźwigalski and Sebastian Ciborowski looking at his answers. On the table a bowl full of cherries on the occasion of the Polish Children's Day.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
38 × 57.7 cm (artwork), 58.4 × 75 cm (frame)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 31)
2009
color photography, photographic print on paper
58.4 × 75 cm (frame)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 32)
2009
color photography, photographic print on paper
50.6 × 62.4 cm (artwork), 58.4 × 75 cm (frame)

Other works by the artist

See all (9)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 1). Children's Home Na Zielonym Wzgórzu. Kisielany Żmichy, 19.05.2008, Monday Morning. Darek Wróbel and Kamil Jasielewicz are the last in line to enter the bus for school.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
50.5 × 63 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 4). Children's Home Trzemiętowo, 7.10.2008, Tuesday afternoon. Gracjan Schmelter and Tomasz Brządkowski posing for the camera with the sculpture in front of the entrance of the Children's Home.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
60.7 × 50.7 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 7). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 16.05.2008, Friday afternoon. Adrian Z. arranging his bed.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
50.5 × 60.7 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 10). Educational Care Center, Bączków, 29.05.2008, Monday afternoon. Oliwia Domanska's room.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
50.5 × 64.2 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 15). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 15.05.2008, Friday afternoon. The children cleaning the Children's Home. Angelika P. and Michał I. collecting the trash after sweepeing the corridor while Paulina P. and Kasia K. are running toward the kitchen.
2008
color photography, printout from a chromogenic print on paper
64.3 × 50.5 cm
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 28). Children's Home No 11, Warszawa, 30.05.2008, Friday afternoon. Mrs. Małgorzata Rzodkiewicz, the caretaker and director of the Children's Home, working on the bills of the Children's Home, with Mateusz Pazio doing a sudoku and Waldemar Dźwigalski and Sebastian Ciborowski looking at his answers. On the table a bowl full of cherries on the occasion of the Polish Children's Day.
2008
black and white photography, printout on paper
38 × 57.7 cm (artwork), 58.4 × 75 cm (frame)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 31)
2009
color photography, photographic print on paper
58.4 × 75 cm (frame)
Ahlam Shibli
Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 32)
2009
color photography, photographic print on paper
50.6 × 62.4 cm (artwork), 58.4 × 75 cm (frame)

Related exhibitions

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Untitled (Children's Home. The House Starves When You Are Away, No. 25). Children's Home Lubień Kujawski, 18.05.2008, Sunday afternoon. Family visit to the Children's Home. Mrs. R. and Mr. R., mother and father, accompanied by their young nephew, visiting two kids, Jula R. and Franek R. They are all sitting on the carpet in their two children's room, surrounded by bagels, sweets and soft drinks they have bought for their children's.
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