Ariella Aïsha Azoulay ( he, אריאלה עאישה אזולאי; born

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, 1962) is an author,

art curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, filmmaker, and

theorist A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

of photography and

visual culture Visual culture is the aspect of culture expressed in visual images. Many academic fields study this subject, including cultural studies, art history, critical theory, philosophy, media studies, Deaf Studies, and anthropology. The field of ...

. She is a professor of

Modern Culture Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " Age of Rea ...

and Media and the Department of Comparative Literature at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and an independent curator of Archives and Exhibitions. She received the ''Igor Zabel Award'', in 2010, for the exhibition ''Untaken Photographs''.

Early life

Azoulay has degrees from Université Paris VIII,

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...

and

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. Azoulay is of Algerian descent and identifies as "an Arab Jew and a Palestinian Jew of African origins".

Academic career

In 1999 she began teaching at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

. In 2010 Azoulay was denied tenure at Bar-Ilan, a move regarded by some colleagues and commentators as politically motivated. In 2010 she was the Gladstein Visiting professor at the Human Rights Center of the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

. In 2011 she was Leverhulme Research Professor at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

, and she is currently assistant professor of Comparative Literature and Modern Culture and Media at

Watson Institute for International Studies The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs is an interdisciplinary research center at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Its mission is to promote a just and peaceful world through research, teaching, and public engagement ...

. Her partner, with whom she has also co-authored written work, is the philosopher

Adi Ophir Adi Ophir ( he, עדי אופיר; born September 22, 1951) is an Israeli philosopher. Early life Adi Ophir was born on September 22, 1951. He received his BA and MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his PhD from Boston University. ...

Theory

Throughout her career, Azoulay developed concepts and approaches around the reversal of

imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texa ...

violence. The theoretical framework she proposed have far-reaching implications in a number of knowledge fields, such as

political theory Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

archival science Archival science, or archival studies, is the study and theory of building and curating archives, which are collections of documents, recordings and data storage devices. To build and curate an archive, one must acquire and evaluate recorded m ...

, visual and photography studies.

Potential history

In her book ''Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism'' (Verso, 2019), Azoulay studies historical objects (from photographs to documents) belonging to archives and museum collections. In her opinion, the museums must be de-imperialized, as well as the discipline of history itself. She suggests a

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

and an ethics for engaging with historical and archival materials that allows the

historical present In linguistics and rhetoric, the historical present or historic present, also called dramatic present or narrative present, is the employment of the present tense when narrating past events. It is widely used in writing about history in Latin (w ...

discussion to come forward; refusing to relegate these materials to a foreclosed past. In her words: Azoulay invites both the scholar and the public to see the imminent potential in such objects for fostering nonimperial forms of identification and meaning. In her perspective, the archive is not only a repository of documents but a regime of procedures interwoven with imperialist

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...

s. Therefore, the ''Potential History'' is an ongoing process of revising these dogmas, through

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

and

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

. In other words, this kind of history writing should question both the nature of things and the way one understand them. This discussion relates to decolonial theories. Furthermore, Azoulay notes how the decolonization of museums is not possible without the decolonization of the world itself.

Works

Writing

The following is available in English translation: * ''Death's Showcase: the power of image in contemporary democracy'', 2001 * ''The Civil Contract of Photography'', Zone Books, 2008 * ''From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947–1950'', Pluto Press, 2011 * ''Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography'', 2011 * (With

) ''This Regime Which Is Not One: Occupation and Democracy between the Sea and The River (1967 – )'', Stanford University Press, 2011 * (With

) ''The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine'', Stanford University Press * ''Different ways not to say deportation'', Fillip Editions/Artspeak, 2013 * ''Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism'', Verso Books, November 2019

Films

* ''The Food Chain'' (2010) * ''The Angel of History'' * ''Civil Alliance'' (2012) * Un-Documented: Unlearning Imperial Plunder (2019)

Exhibitions

* ''Everything Could Be Seen'' (Al Fahem Gallery, Umm Al Fahem, 2004) * ''Untaken Photographs (''Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art, Galeria Moderna,

Zochrot Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...

, 2010). * ''Potential History'' (Center For Digital Art,

Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...

, 2012) * ''The Body Politic I (''Reina Sofia,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, 2014) * ''Horizontal Photography'', of Aim Deüelle Lüski (MOBY Museum, 2014) * ''Errata'' (Tapiès Foundation, 2019; HKW,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, 2020) * ''Enough! The Natural Violence of New World Order'' (F/Stop photography festival,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, 2016) * ''Act of State 1967–2007'', (Exhibition Tour, 2007–present) * The Natural History of Rape (Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2022)

Prizes

* Igor Zabel Award, 2010, for ''Untaken Photographs'' exhibition.

References

External links

* Ariella Aïsha Azoula
personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azoulay, Ariella 1962 births Living people Film people from Tel Aviv Photography critics Jewish Israeli writers Jewish philosophers Israeli Arab Jews Israeli critics Israeli people of Algerian-Jewish descent Israeli filmmakers Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences alumni University of Paris alumni Tel Aviv University alumni Brown University faculty Israeli expatriates in France Academics of Durham University Israeli women curators Art curators