Jumana Manna
جمانة منّاع
Born: Berlin, Germany
Domain: Visual Arts
Recognition: GLOBAL
Biography
Jumana Manna is an acclaimed Palestinian artist and filmmaker known for sculpture and moving-image work that examines how power shapes bodies, landscapes, archives and the natural world. Born in Berlin in 1987 and raised in Jerusalem, she trained at the National Academy of the Arts in Oslo and CalArts, developing a practice that moves fluidly between sculptural objects and essayistic film. Her sculptures, often cast in materials such as ceramic, plaster and metal and referencing agricultural and storage forms like the khabya granary jars, explore preservation, decay, control and survival. These concerns extend into her films, which blend documentary and fiction to probe colonial science, food systems and cultural heritage. Manna's films have earned wide critical recognition. "Wild Relatives" (2018) traced the journey of seeds between a Svalbard seed vault and Lebanon, while "Foragers" (2022) examined Israeli restrictions on Palestinians gathering wild plants such as za'atar and akoub, winning awards and screening at major festivals and institutions. Her work has been shown at leading venues worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate, the Venice Biennale and numerous international biennials, and she has received honors such as the Ars Viva Prize. Dividing her time between Berlin and Jerusalem, Manna is among the most prominent younger Palestinian artists internationally, bringing ecological and archival questions into the conversation about Palestinian dispossession and resilience.
Why This Person Matters
Manna is a leading younger Palestinian artist whose sculpture and award-winning films connect ecology, archives and colonial control to Palestinian survival, shown at MoMA, Tate and the Venice Biennale.