Published by Sharjah Art Foundation, Scouting for Locations is authored by Yazan Khalili and features quotes from Palestinian writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani's 1963 novel, Men in the Sun.
A film production crew mysteriously disappears in an Arab Gulf city while scouting for locations for an adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun (1963).
Their fate is not unlike the three protagonists of this seminal novella, who vanish with a piercing scream as they search for labour. This scream is echoed through the pages of this book as the reader journeys with the crew through an unfamiliar, muffled landscape, learning about their encounters and aspirations through photographs and notes left behind.
Scouting for Locations, an extension of Yazan Khalili's installation commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 11, attempts to bring attention to the everyday struggle of labourers in the Gulf to find visibility and representation.
The book is available for purchase at the Sharjah Art Foundation bookstores, Kinokuniya and NYUAD bookstores.
Scouting for Locations
Artist book by Yazan Khalili
Paperback - 120 pages, 125 visuals (colour)
Arabic and English
Published by Sharjah Art Foundation, 2017
ISBN 978-9948-13-740-5
