OmarJoseph Nasser-Khoury

Biography

Omar was born and raised in Al Quds (Jerusalem), Palestine, he finished his undergraduate studies in fashion design in London and has been working with the Birzeit University, University Museum and other international NGOs in Palestine since 2010.

Omar’s work looks into how notions of power, gender and sexuality manifest themselves in dress and handicraft, their centrality to nationalism and self-determination. An aversion to nostalgia and grandiose, romanticised narrative push his exploration of contemporaneous ‘traditional’ artisanal techniques, and how to undermine both conservationist and revivalist approaches, being propagated through the invention, glorification and consolidation of cultural heritage.

More recently Omar has been lecturing at Birzeit University and managing the collection at Birzeit University Museum.

At the British Museum
During his time on the International Training Programme in 2013, Omar was based in the Middle East Department, and her partner placement was spent at Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Museum.

In 2013 participants are asked to prepare a project outlining an exhibition proposal based on the space and programme for the British Museum’s Asahi Shimbun Displays in Room 3.  Omar’s exhibition project proposal was entitled Queer Objects: Positionality, Ideology and the Museum.

Omar’s place on the programme was generously supported by Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust.

Legacy Projects
In 2018 Omar returned to the British Museum on a knowledge exchange programme to document the British Museum’s Palestinian textile collection. The project is a partnership between the British Museum’s ITP, the British Council (occupied Palestinian Territories) and the Palestine Exploration Fund. Omar returned to the British Museum in 2019 to continue this knowledge exchange programme project.