Foundland
Foundland is an art, design and research collective, initiated in 2009 by Lauren Alexander and Ghalia Elsrakbi and based between Cairo and Amsterdam. This collaboration arose from a common desire to analyze, translate, contextualize and intervene on an artistic and intellectual level with urgent, complex social and political systems that exist around us, specifically from our position as non-Western citizens living between the Middle East and Europe.
Foundland has presented at many international exhibitions and festivals including Kadist Foundation, Paris (2012), Impakt Festival, Utrecht (2011, 2012), BAK, Utrecht (2012), Damascus Visual Arts Festival, Istanbul (2013) and Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2016, 2018).
The collective has participated in masterclasses and lecture presentations at Studium Generale ArtEZ, Arnhem, de Appel for Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam, The Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Studium Generale Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem and at the Athens Biennial.
Their essays and visuals have contributed to international journals such as Open! Magazine (The Netherlands), Krisis Magazine (Italy), Esse Magazine (Canada) and Ibraaz, a Middle East online journal. Recent artist residencies include the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo (2013) and ISCP, New York (2014).
In 2015, Foundland was awarded the Smithsonian artist research award for research in the Alixa Naff Collection and was nominated for the oldest Dutch art award, called the Prix de Rome (2015).
