Spotlight with Hamzeh Alfarahneh
Hamzeh Alfarahneh, Independent Curator, Cape Town, South Africa.
Image courtesy of Art(Advisory). Photo by Sune Van Tonder.
Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you got into curating?
I am a third-generation survivor of the Nakba, born in Amman, Jordan. I grew up in Saudi Arabia before moving to Cape Town, South Africa, to study. I completed a BA in Fine Arts, majoring in Fashion Design, but found my way into the visual arts. My first role was at A4 Arts Foundation, where I began developing my curatorial practice. I later established Art(Advisory), an advisory firm that advocates for and places art from the Global Majority. Alongside this, I work independently as a curator with institutions including Zeitz MOCAA in South Africa and Louvre Abu Dhabi. I also consult with Middle Eastern foundations, including Al Amin Art Foundation, and have curated exhibitions in Dubai, Zurich, Abu Dhabi, and Cape Town.
Who/what has influenced your curatorial practice?
My curatorial practice is shaped by my belief that the arts shed light on how we understand the world around us. I am influenced by thinkers, historians, authors, and art practitioners including Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Peggy Phelan, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung, as well as the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Rumi.
The role of the curator is continuously changing. Could you describe what it means to be a curator today?
In many ways, I see my role as bringing cultures and people together, and building on the visual arts’ ability to represent underrepresented communities, peoples, stories, and narratives.
Tell us about the latest exhibition that you curated.
I launched Interventions in July 2026, a programme that stages institutional(ish) propositions in everyday spaces. Interventions does not seek to replicate existing institutional models at a smaller scale. Instead, it asks what institution-making looks like when it begins from the ground up: responsive to artists before infrastructure, and accountable to the immediate needs of its context rather than the conventions of the field. Working within and across the Global Majority, the programme tests what it means for an institution to be genuinely nimble: lean enough to move quickly and small enough to remain intimate.
The first intervention, Between Two Palms, found its home in Apartment 202, a site where my grief had settled, witnessed by the two palms visible from every vantage point in the flat. The exhibition traced the complicated feeling-states that grief brings forth: mourning people, relationships, and former selves. Drawing on Freud’s concept of melancholia, in which loss becomes incorporated into the self rather than separated from it, the exhibition proposed that some grief does not resolve. Instead, it changes you.
What are you reading, watching, or listening to now, that is helping you to stay relaxed and positive?
I’m reading Floodlines by Salim Haddad and Mourning Sex by Peggy Phelan, and watching Silo on Apple TV+.
How long have you been part of IKT?
I joined IKT earlier this year. I’m enjoying the community, the opportunities, and the exchange.
Thank you Hamzeh!
Learn more about Hamzeh and his work: Art(Advisory) Website / Instagram
Spotlight
The Spotlight series features short interviews with IKT members, offering insight into their work, ideas, and professional contexts. Through these conversations, we highlight the diverse practices, perspectives, and experiences that make up the IKT community, while creating opportunities for members to discover shared interests, find inspiration, and connect with potential collaborators.
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