Palestinian artist Shaima Sheikh Ali, renowned for her powerful work centered on collective memory, identity, and resilience, arrives in Bilbao as part of a three-month artist residency organized by the Moving Artists Association, in collaboration with TEJA and BilbaoArte.

Shaima will be working in the city from September to November 2025, developing a new artistic project linked to her personal experience as a Palestinian woman with a disability and her deep connection to the Palestinian community, history, and territory..

Originally from the displaced village of Beit Thul, near Jerusalem, and currently residing in Beit Hanina, Shaima Sheikh Ali graduated in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in 2022. Since then, she has exhibited her work in Palestine, Jerusalem, and London, including at festivals and exhibitions such as the Shubbak Festival, Vital Capacities, and the Tamas exhibition in 2023. Her artistic practice encompasses sculpture, installation, and video art, with an approach that seeks to generate sensitive experiences in spaces. In her work, Shaima explores the tension between the individual and the collective, the intimate and the political, in contexts marked by occupation, exile, and cultural resistance.

During her stay in Bilbao, Shaima will collaborate with local artists, participate in activities open to the public, and develop new pieces in BilbaoArte spaces. This residency is part of Moving Artists’ commitment to the mobility and visibility of artists from conflict-ridden contexts, fostering cultural exchange and critical thinking through contemporary art.