Where we come from, Emily Jacir’s debut solo at the gallery and in India, brings together a seminal body of work. Through rigorous historical and archival research, Jacir’s layered and resonant body of work is rooted in gathering, community, and in social affiliations. As poetic as it is political and biographical, her work investigates silenced histories, exchange, translation, transformation, and resistance.

In the titular work Where we come from (2001–03), Jacir posed a question to Palestinians living in the occupied territories and abroad: “If I could do anything for you, anywhere in Palestine, what would it be?” In carrying out the resulting tasks and documenting her actions in a series of photographs, texts, and video, she transforms intimate histories to address collective experiences of displacement, exile, and their emotional upheaval across generations.

The exhibition uses the work as a vantage point for viewing the current moment of fracture in the world, while offering a lens into how the matrix of control and settler-colonialism has jeopardised and held Palestinian lives hostage in their homeland for decades. It traces how, despite more than two decades passing since the project was conceived, the body of work remains acutely relevant as we stand witness to the genocidal oppression of Palestine—carried out with full impunity for over two years now—which has wiped out entire generations. Where we come from (2001–03) compels us to reflect on how the mundane acts of living sustain memory and a sense of belonging, while underscoring how violence and military occupation cannot erase people or their histories.