Grinding the wind 

In Grinding the wind, Dina Mimi tries to fill in the missing parts in the story of her Palestinian great-grandfather who underwent medical tests and heart surgery. From this event, Mimi sets off on a journey through archives, oral histories, dreams and books.   

Mimi: "Like a surgeon who, in his wet dream, pokes his finger into a heart during an operation, I also conduct my research into the performative aspects of open-heart surgery from a desire. My great-grandfather's heart, sealed behind more than a hundred stitches from his chest to his waist, was reduced to ashes with his final act of self-immolation." Faced with the mystery of this now inaccessible 'archive', Dina Mimi searches for clues to understand his descent into silence and protest and even death.  

• Dina Mimi is a visual artist who works and lives in Jerusalem and Amsterdam. Using video, text, sound and performance, she explores themes of mourning, death, memory and the colonial past. In 2021, she did a groupresidency at Kaaistudio's as part of Kunstenfestivaldesarts' The School of Contamination. With Grinding the wind, we welcome her solo to our programme for the first time.