Bio.
Firas Shehadeh is a Palestinian artist. His work explores worldbuilding, meaning, aesthetics, and identity. His practice investigates the post-colonial condition through the lens of technology, history, digitality, and speculative realities. Working across film, video, and sound, Shehadeh conducts a sustained inquiry into the ways narratives and identities are constructed, contested, and mediated within contemporary society. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Shehadeh’s work has been presented internationally at festivals and institutions including the 44th International Festival of Films on Art—Le FIFA (Montreal), the second MUNCH Triennale, Almost Unreal (Oslo), the 18th Lo schermo dell’arte (Florence), the 14th Mercosul Biennial (Porto Alegre), London Short Film Festival, Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico), Beta Festival (Dublin), Beursschouwburg (Brussels), Soft Centre (Naarm/Melbourne), Images Festival (Toronto), B7L9 Art Center (Tunis), Los Angeles Filmforum, Ashkal Alwan (Beirut), unsafe+sounds (Vienna), the 7th Singapore Biennale, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica (Barcelona), A.M. Qattan Foundation (Ramallah), 7th Cairo Video Festival, 4th Digital Marrakech and the 64th Berlinale (Berlin). Through his multifaceted practice, Shehadeh examines dominant paradigms and offers new perspectives on meaning-making and worldbuilding.


info@firasshehadeh.com


Education
2021–2023 — PhD Candidate, Philosophy, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria (discontinued)
2016–2020 — MFA, Video and Video Installation, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
2015–2016 — Conceptual Art / Post-Conceptual Art Practices, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
2015 — Decolonizing Knowledge and Power: Postcolonial Studies, Decolonial Horizons, Center for Decolonial Thought, Barcelona, Spain
2006–2008 — Architecture, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Amman, Jordan


Upcoming
2026 — Para los tiempos de cuevas sónicas, Materia Abierta, Mexico City, Mexico
2026 — Undertow (Contre;Courant), Jaou Tunis, B7L9 Art Center, Tunis, Tunisia

Selected Exhibitions and Screenings
2026 — Metabolising Time, MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven, Netherlands
2026 — ULLAN Festival, Université de Lorraine, Metz, France
2026 — Cruising in Uncanny Realities, Wuhan bǎilin Film Festival, Wuhan, China
2026 — 9th Milan Machinima Festival (MMF) – Replay/Reload/Respawn, Milan, Italy
2026 — A Few Rules for Predicting the Future, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta
2026 — 44th International Festival of Films on Art (Le FIFA), Montreal, Canada
2026 — Palazzo Grassi invita Lo schermo dell’arte, Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
2026 — Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, Bergen, Norway
2026 — Kayfa ta, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2025 — Narrating [with] the Videogame Image, Fundación Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain
2025 — Almost Every Day, Contemporary Image Collective (CIC), Cairo, Egypt
2025 — Second MUNCH Triennale – Almost Unreal, MUNCH Museum, Oslo, Norway
2025 — 18th Lo schermo dell’arte, Florence, Italy
2025 — Whispers, Hubbub and Paradoxes, Centre d’Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain
2025 — There Is Nothing Solid about Solidarity, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium
2025 — 44th Uppsala Short Film Festival – Gaza Film Unit, Uppsala, Sweden
2025 — Octobre Numérique - Faire Monde, Arles, France
2025 — OP=OP, moezeum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2025 — Out of Bounds, ArteEast, Millennium Film Workshop, New York, USA
2025 — The Way of the Future. Introduced by Matteo Bittanti, Milan Machinima Festival - VRAL, Milan, Italy
2025 — Security / Borders, OFF-Biennale Budapest, Hungary
2025 — Maknana: An Archaeology of New Media Art in the Arab World, Diriyah Art Futures, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2025 — 14th Mercosul Biennial – Estalo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2025 — D’abord les fraises, puis les fleurs, Galerie d’art Forde, Geneva, Switzerland
2025 — London Short Film Festival, London, UK

2024 — Ultracinema Experimental Film Festival, Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City, Mexico
2024 — Beta Festival, Dublin, Ireland
2024 — Tashweesh Festival, Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Belgium
2024 — 17th Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF), Toronto, Canada
2024 — Supermodel, Soft Centre, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2024 — 6th Gabès Cinema Fen Festival, Gabès, Tunisia
2024 — A Tyrant’s Fear of Songs, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
2024 — The Deluge and the Tree, B7L9 Art Center, Tunis, Tunisia
2023 — So Much I Want to Say, Los Angeles Filmforum, Los Angeles, USA
2023 — Partly, Art Hub, Copenhagen, Denmark
2023 — Encontro em Solidariedade à Palestina, Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2023 — Palestina, Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain
2023 — Like An Event In A Dream Dreamt By Another — Rehearsal. Introduced by Matteo Bittanti, Milan Machinima Festival - VRAL, Milan, Italy
2023 — like a lurch of earth on the edge of sleep, aashra – Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon
2023 — Landscapes of the Political Imaginary, Open Systems, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
2023 — Instant Modernism, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
2023 — On the New, school, belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria
2023 — Tashattot, KIOSK, Gent, Belgium
2022 — 7th Singapore Biennale – Natasha, Singapore
2022 — There, Where You Are Not, Performative Screenings #73, school, Vienna, Austria
2020 — For The Days Yet To Come, Fluc, Vienna, Austria
2020 — Sin límites, Casa Árabe, Madrid / Córdoba, Spain
2019 — Principle of Equality, Vienna Art Week, Vienna, Austria
2019 — Stars Are Closer and Clouds Are Nutritious Under Golden Trees, MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
2018 — We Shall Be Monsters, Young Artist of the Year Award (YAYA), A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
2018 — In the Margin, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts - Factory, Amman, Jordan
2018 — Truth is black, write over it with a mirage’s light, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
2017 — si:n festival of video art and performance, Ramallah, Palestine
2016 — 29th Festival Les Instants Vidéo, Marseille, France
2016 — If All Relations Were to Reach Equilibrium, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, UK 
2016 — Anti*Colonial Fantasies / Decolonial Strategies, Friday Exit, Vienna, Austria
2016 — Moment.Movement, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria
2016 — Colectivo Acciones de Arte (C.A.D.A.), Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
2015 — 7th Cairo Video Festival, Cairo, Egypt
2015 — Phase Space, Kings Artist-Run, Naarm/Melbourne, Australia
2015 — Body Politics, Àngels Barcelona / Loop Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
2015 — I Came from There, La Capella, BCN Producció, Barcelona, Spain
2015 — Kristallisationen, Elektrohaus Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2014 — Unexplored Territories 06_Palestina, Madatac 06, Madrid, Spain
2014 — 4th Digital Marrakech, Marrakech, Morocco
2014 — Minrasy Projects, Qalandiya International, Ramallah, Palestine
2014 — Monte de Estépar, Espacio tangente, Burgos, Spain
2014 — 9th Forum Expanded, 64th Berlinale, Berlin, Germany 
2010 — Sentences on the banks and other activities, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

Selected Sound Performances +
2026 — Manual for an Unsettled World, Spore Initiative, Berlin, Germany
2025 — Nofa Creative Space, Amman, Jordan
2025 — Estalo, 14th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2024 — NTS: Nile to Bank, London, UK
2024 — The Deluge and the Tree, B7L9 Art Center, Tunis, Tunisia
2023 — Hope. A Politics of Healing, unsafe+sounds, Vienna, Austria
2022 — Natasha, 7th Singapore Biennale, Singapore
2022 — MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan

Selected Workshops, Seminars and Talks
2026 — Workshop, Like an Event in a Dream Dreamt by Another, Manual for an Unsettled World, Spore Initiative, Berlin, Germany
2025 — Talk, Misuse as Method, There Is Nothing Solid about Solidarity, Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
2025 — Talk, Diriyah Art Futures Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2025 — Seminar, Double Vision, Palestinian Cinema Beyond the Frame, 10th Palestinian Film Festival, De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2024 — Workshop, There, Where You Are Not_Appendix, B7L9 Art Center, Tunis, Tunisia
2024 — Palestine Teaches: Commemoration, Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Grants and Awards
2024 — Radical Forms Award, Images Festival, Toronto
2018 — Second Prize, Young Artist of the Year Award (YAYA), A.M. Qattan Foundation
2015–2019 — Study Grant, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, supported by Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation
2015 — Study Grant, Decolonizing Knowledge and Power: Postcolonial Studies, Decolonial Horizons, Barcelona, supported by Rana Sadik and Samer Younis
2015 — BCN Producció, La Capella, Barcelona City Council

Collections
Vera Chaves Barcellos Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Darat al Funun — The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan
A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine
Museum of Manufactured Response to Absence (MoMRtA), London, UK
Arsenal — Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, Germany

Arts Residencies
2019 — MMAG Foundation, Amman, Jordan
2019 — Principle of Equality, cur. Adam Szymczyk, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Guatemala City / Panajachel, Guatemala
2018 — UNIDEE, University of Ideas, Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy
2017 — Kulturvermittlung Steiermark, Graz, Austria

Selected Articles / Publications
Gianmarco Del Re, “Firas Shehadeh ~ Depth Map,” A Closer Listen, 2026
Hadi Afif, “Exorcising the Ghosts of the Region,” Dazed MENA, 2026
Amanda Boulos, “When Play Confronts Power,” C Magazine, Toronto, 2025
“Reclaim Power and Agency with Music: An Interview with Asifeh & Firas Shehadeh,” Struma+Iodine, Vienna, 2023
Interview, Canvas, Issue 105, 2022
“Notes on the Logic of Speed,” Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 20, Issue 2 (The JVC Palestine Portfolio), London, 2021
“Value,” Weird Economies, 2021
“The View from ‘No Man’s Land,’” Well Gedacht Publishing, Berlin, 2020
“Aesthetics of Liberation,” Awhām Magazine, Issue 3, Berlin, 2020
Stephanie Bailey, “Internet of Things: Another World is Possible,” Art Monthly, Issue 439, London, 2020
“We Shall Be Monsters,” A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, 2020
“Anti*Colonial Fantasies / Decolonial Strategies,” Zaglossus, Vienna, 2017
“I Came from There,” BCN Producció, Barcelona, 2015
“After Image,” Frieze, 2014