Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme have consistently redefined the boundaries of contemporary audio-visual art with precision, poetic urgency and uncompromising vision. Since 2007, the Palestinian duo have forged a practice that traverses image, installation, performance, sound and text, excavating narratives that hover at the edges of history, memory and lived experience. Their work investigates the possibilities of the present: ephemeral, layered and insistently non-linear. Through collecting, sampling and recasting materials both found and self-authored, they produce what they call “new scripts” – poetics of resistance that interrogate the political, visceral and material potential of sound, image, text and site.
A fascination with memory and its slippages is central to their practice: the interplay of déjà vu, amnesia and displacement. Abbas and Abou-Rahme employ what might be described as fugitive tactics, reframing gestures, figures and sites to create moments of reflection and interruption, where everyday life is rendered strange and overlooked histories gain urgency. Their work articulates experiences of forced statelessness, exile and resilience, and in doing so, conjures a language that is at once intimate, political and poetic. It is a practice demanding attention, but one that rewards it with profound insight.
Their latest commission, Still from Prisoners of Love, marks their most ambitious multi-media installation to date. The work, presented at Nottingham Contemporary, unfolds as an immersive exploration of songs, poems and acts of daily resistance by prisoners in the occupied West Bank. Love songs, hymns to land and melodies of liberation intertwine with firsthand recordings and testimonies from former prisoners. Layered atop these are texts authored by the artists alongside poets and scholars, reflecting on detention, resilience and the pursuit of justice. The installation poses a central, haunting question: how can sound seep, transgress and resonate beyond the confines of prison walls? In their hands, sound and writing are not mere documentation – they are instruments of liberation, capable of dissolving repressive structures and cultivating collective imaginaries of hope.
Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s practice resonates with that of other contemporary artists exploring memory, politics and the poetics of place. Hito Steyerl interrogates the circulation of images and the politics of visibility, exposing the ways media shapes perception and memory. Forensic Architecture meticulously reconstructs instances of human rights violations, demonstrating the evidentiary power of sound, image and spatial analysis. Emily Jacir’s installations and performances, often rooted in Palestinian narratives, combine quotidian gestures with poetic interventions, revealing how art can bear witness while catalysing dialogue and empathy. Like these artists, Abbas and Abou-Rahme balance rigorous archival methods with expressive experimentation, producing work that is intellectually exacting and emotionally compelling.
Nottingham Contemporary’s programme provides a vital framework for this exhibition. Since its opening in 2009, the institution has championed international perspectives and politically engaged practice, foregrounding artists whose work interrogates identity, memory and social justice. Recent exhibitions have explored themes of displacement, collective memory and the interplay of art and politics, reinforcing the gallery’s commitment to creating platforms for dialogue and reflection. Within this context, Still from Prisoners of Love extends and amplifies Nottingham Contemporary’s ambitions. It is not only an exhibition but a space of encounter – an immersive dialogue where audiences inhabit the precarious, resilient worlds of those whose freedoms are constrained.
The installation’s power lies in its orchestration of sound, image and text. Voices of prisoners, poets and the artists themselves converge to create intimacy, urgency and reflection. Each layer resonates beyond the gallery walls, conjuring a sense of presence, memory and potential. Everyday acts of resistance – a whispered song, a quietly circulated poem – become vectors of hope, imagining worlds beyond containment. Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s “new scripts” reveal the capacity of art to document, critique and imagine simultaneously. In their work, resilience is both material and poetic, creating an experience that is profoundly human, politically resonant and aesthetically compelling.
The immersive qualities of Still from Prisoners of Love underscore the duo’s mastery of multi-sensory storytelling. Soundscapes ripple through the gallery, layering testimony, song, and ambient resonance. Texts hover in space, inviting contemplation and reflection. Visual interventions, sometimes archival, sometimes self-authored, punctuate the environment with moments of recognition and rupture. The exhibition does not simply recount experiences; it constructs an emotional and ethical field in which audiences are invited to inhabit complex histories, to bear witness, and to imagine alternative futures. In a contemporary moment marked by division, conflict, and displacement, the work is deeply resonant.
Ultimately, Still from Prisoners of Love exemplifies the transformative potential of collaborative, research-driven art. Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s installation is at once intimate and expansive, local and global, archival and poetic. It demonstrates how contemporary art can engage with the most pressing social, political and cultural questions while offering imaginative possibilities for hope and resistance. Their practice affirms the enduring power of sound, image and text to bear witness, to mobilise empathy and to envision worlds in which structures of oppression might be transcended.
Still from Prisoners of Love is on view at Nottingham Contemporary from 27 September 2025 to 11 January 2026. Co-commissioned by Nottingham Contemporary, Kunstinstituut Melly, and MACBA, and curated by Salma Tuqan and Niall Ó Faircheallaigh, the exhibition represents both a milestone in Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s practice and a compelling continuation of Nottingham Contemporary’s commitment to ambitious, globally resonant contemporary art.
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom is at Nottingham Contemporary from 27 September 2025 to 11 January 2026: nottinghamcontemporary.org
Words: Simon Cartwright
All Images: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Still from Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of
Freedom, 2025. Courtesy of the artists.
