In Aching Agony and Longing I Wait for You by the Spring of Thieves

Posing questions about memory, the body, folklore and rituals, Jumana Emil Abboud's artistic practice confronts the telling and retelling of history and the impacts of language and the fragmentation of memories. In aching agony and longing I wait for you by the Spring of Thieves includes a selection of the Jerusalembased artist's visual, poetic and text-based projects spanning 20 years, and contributions by Marina Warner and Tina Sherwell engage closely with Abboud's practice.

In aching agony and longing I wait for you by the Spring ofThieves three chapters focus on Abboud's long engagement with folktales from Palestine and elsewhere. The first chapter entitled, "The Book of Haunted Landscapes" addresses Abboud's connection to the landscape of her homeland and showcases drawings, videos and performances connected to Palestinian folktales, as well as her recent collaboration with filmmaker Issa Freij in which they return to haunted springs and water wells described in 1922 by ethnographer Tawfiq Canaan. A second chapter; "From Lamb to Monster: A Study of Transformation" deals with stories and themes of transformation and journeying, while bridging these with contemporary life in the region. The third chapter, "Happy Endings: The Book of Spells and Remedies" celebrates magical beings and bodies, instilling, after morbid events, a sense of the possibility of realising emancipatory endings. The book also includes collected Palestinian tales that have inspired the artist throughout her practice.

In aching agony and longing I wait for you by the Spring of Thieves marks the finissage of Abboud's solo exhibition The Horse, the Bird, the Tree and the Stone at Bildmuseet and the inauguration of her solo show The pomegranate and the sleeping ghoul at Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation. Supported by Bildmuseet and Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation.