06/03/'26, 7-9pm: artist talk Francisca Khamis + Launch Be My Ghost—Arefeh Riahi @Manifold Books
finissage Si tú te vas & launch Be My Ghost Friday March 6 18:45 doors open 19:00 final screening of Si tú te vas 19:30-20:30 Francisca Khamis Giacoman in conversation with Stephanie Noach 20:30-21:00 drinks
please RSVP via info@manifoldbooks.nl by March 4 and let us know a day in advance in case of cancelation
maximum capacity for talk & screening: 25 language: English location:MAP
throughout the evening the first episode of the sound piece Be My Ghost by Arefeh Riahi will be audible in the staircase
Dear reader,
We would like to invite you to a final screening and finissage of Si tú te vas by Francisca Khamis Giacoman, followed by a conversation between the artist and Stephanie Noach. March 6 equally marks the first iteration of Arefeh Riahi's Be My Ghost, a sound piece in three episodes, of which the first episode will be streamed in our staircase.
Si tú te vas is a three-channel video installation portraying a textile factory in Bethlehem. While the workers have left the factory, the camera slips inside, like a ghost. Filmed as a phantom ride, the viewer floats along, from the entrance to the top floor. In the words of the artists: "As the title suggests, Si tú te vas—the song by Camilo Sesto, heard here in a slowed-down version—marks a suspended time. Camilo Sesto plays. The factory remains. Fibres drift without a fixed destination, and in their movement something of the labour and sound of those who were there before persists."
For this show, a small part of the beam construction of Manifold Books—a space for cultural production—has itself moved to Al-Makhrour, where it lies buried on land belonging to the Khamis family. This gesture of entrusting the object to the land, allows time and the soil itself to become its keepers. In turn the attic beam in Amsterdam is now supported by a piece of wood engendered by this land.
In Be My Ghost Arefeh Riahi takes the listener on a metaphorical phantom ride. The sound piece consists of three letters written and read by the artist in which she takes Manifold Books' founder Maartje Fliervoet on a fictive walk through Tehran, her hometown. Departing from her long term engagement with hauntology and undecidability, the work explores the relation between the migrant and the so-called host, complicated by the factor of time. The second and third episode will be released over the coming months, in tandem with upcoming activities.
See you soon, Manifold Books
About our current year programme Of Ghosts and Flowers Of Ghosts and Flowersproposes a transition from our 2024 programmeThe Sphinx's Riddlearound grief and transformation to an exhibition and event series about non-linear time experiences in 2025 and 2026. The urgency for this arose from the content of this programme, and how the system of linear time imposed on us disintegrates in the face of death, grief and profound mental and physical transformative processes. In addition, it feels urgent to formulate alternative forms of dealing with time because our system of linear time is linked to our economic system; the biggest driver of climate change. The embodied sensations we will look into include non-human perspectives as well as human ones. Of Ghosts and Flowers departs from the work of Rosemary Mayer (1943-2014). Si tú te vas is the fourth exhibition within this programme. More information on upcoming shows and activities will follow soon.
Image caption: Andrés Khamis Giacoman & Francisca Khamis Giacoman. Si tú te vas. 2026. Three-channel colour video installation with sound. Digital video files, three video projectors, custom projection surfaces. Variable dimensions; each projection approx. 216 x 122cm. Photo: Ieva Maslinskaitė.
Special thanks to: Dar Jacir, Andrés Khamis Giacoman, Ibrahim Handal, the Arja family, Boutros, Fabian Reichle, Ivo van Stiphout, Radio Alhara and Lara Khaldi.
Stephanie Noach is an independent curator and Assistant Professor of Art History at Leiden University, working on global contemporary art and theory, particularly from the Caribbean and Latin America. Being a member of the board of Manifold Books, her contribution to the finissage event of Si tú te vas has been approved by the board.
Initiated by Maartje Fliervoet, Manifold Books is a platform that explores connections between art and books. With each exhibition a few titles are added to its book collection (all including artists’ interventions). As of May 11, 2021, Manifold Books has become a foundation. Its board members are: Arnisa Zeqo (chair), Stephanie Noach (secretary) and Paul Domela (treasurer).
