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Areej Almansory
Areej Almansory kneels in a darkened gallery holding two folded paper forms, one raised in each hand, with a large projected photograph and Arabic text behind her and a stack of broken wooden chairs to the right.

Areej Almansory

Performance · Video · Conceptual practice

Photo: Lee Sandberg

Areej Almansory is an Iraqi-born visual and performance artist based in Helsingborg, Sweden. Her practice spans painting, performance, video and conceptual work, exploring identity, migration, belonging, cultural memory and the experience of living between different social and cultural contexts. Drawing from personal experience, her work addresses broader questions of integration, representation, gender and the meaning of home. Through both intimate and public gestures, Almansory examines how identity is shaped, negotiated and perceived.

Selected works

All works
  1. Film still: a woman in profile holds a faceted glass form beside a table of glass tower shapes, a jug and a cup, lit against a dark background.

    On Hospitality – Layla Al-Attar and Hotel Al-Rasheed

    01

    Film / Performance · 2024

  2. Exhibition view: visitors move through a room where wooden chairs lie broken across a black-and-white checkerboard floor, in front of a large projection of a woman in a black head covering.

    War is not Bread for the Poor

    02

    Video / Performance-based work · 2024

  3. Close-up of two hands pressing wet ochre clay into a black-and-white patterned cloth, the fabric partly absorbed into the clay surface.

    The Truth of the Clay

    03

    Installation / Performance-based work · 2024

  4. Black-and-white photograph: a woman in a headscarf and black polo neck stands against a bright window with her arms crossed; the words “Förtryck” and “Frihet” are written by hand along her forearms.

    Hijab: Between Oppression and Freedom

    04

    Performance / Sound / Conceptual Photography · 2022

  5. A woman holds up two folded paper planes towards the camera; the paper is printed repeatedly with the word “WAR” in Latin and Arabic script, partly obscuring her face behind them.

    Paper Missiles

    05

    Performance / Conceptual Photography · 2022

  6. Detail of a long white textile on a wooden floor, handwritten in Swedish “Liv och befrielse, glädje och hopp” with a line of Arabic script beneath it.

    Between Two Anthems

    06

    Performance / Textile / Writing · 2022

  7. Black-and-white view of a gallery where dismantled wooden chairs stand and lie in front of a wall projection; a projected Swedish line reads “Jag byter Dig … mot allt i … värld” and a figure crouches at the right.

    The Friendliest Country on Earth

    07

    Collaborative performance & installation · 2022

  8. Black-and-white photograph: a lone figure wrapped in a long black cloak stands on a pebble shore facing a calm sea, with a cargo ship on the horizon under an overcast sky.

    Time / Tiden

    08

    Photographic / Conceptual work · 2019/2020

  9. Detail of a collage panel: a torn paper fragment carrying a printed Swedish message, with the sender's name blacked out, laid over a photograph of the artist in a dark veil.

    Public Responses – Collective Voices and Afterlives of an Act

    09

    Collage / Installation · 2019

About

Born in Iraq, lives and works in Helsingborg, Sweden. Member of NVSK – Northwest Skåne Artists’ Association and SK – Swedish Association of Artists.

Biography and CV

Selected press

All press
  • Landskrona Direkt article dated 5 September 2022, headlined “Färgstark konstnär leder Svart på vitt-juryn”, with a photograph of Areej Almansory seated at a table with two other jury members examining a drawing.

    Färgstark konstnär leder Svart på vitt-juryn

    Landskrona Direkt · 2022

  • Östgöta Correspondenten culture page dated 23 August 2022, headlined “Myterna vägleder irakiska konstnärer till Sverige”, with a photograph of Areej Almansory standing in front of her mixed-media painting.

    Myterna vägleder irakiska konstnärer till Sverige

    Östgöta Correspondenten · 2022

  • Helsingborgs Dagblad culture page dated 19 March 2022, headlined “Minoriteter som möts”, reviewing the Dunkers Kulturhus exhibition with Lars Pirak, Sahar Al-Khateeb and Areej Almansory.

    Minoriteter som möts

    Helsingborgs Dagblad · 2022