Basil AlZeri is a Palestian artist based in Toronto working in performance, video, installation, food, and public art interventions/projects. His work is grounded in his practice as an art educator and community worker. He explores the intersections between the quotidian and art, and strives for interactions with the public, using social interactions and exchanges to create gestures of generosity.
AlZeri’s performance work has been shown across the Americas.
The Mobile Kitchen Lab
With The Mobile Kitchen Lab (2010 – present), AlZeri performs simple and generous gestures, inviting his guests to identify the Palestinian stories of land, resources and labour that are built into his recipes.
Initiated in 2010, his durational performances feature live projected instructions provided by his mother, Suad, via Skype.
Hear a radio interview on the project here.
Pull, Sort, Hang, Dry and Crush
Pull, Sort, Hang, Dry and Crush (2014) was an interactive performance involving food crops and their re-plantation. In this performance, wild thyme plants that had been transported over thousands of kilometres were re-purposed through the processes of drying, crushing and storing. AlZeri spoke of the plants’ origin and in so doing re-created the Zaatar mix using his mother’s technique.