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Aya Nadera Zantout • آية نادرة زنتوت

@ayanzan

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artist, architect, and everything around and in between
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Exhibition | 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯 | Artist Highlight: Aya Nadera Zantout

Aya Nadera Zantout (b. 1996, Lebanon) is a visual artist and architect. Her practice lies at the intersections of art, the built environment, history, and identity, documenting her own (and her city’s) conflicting identities as they continue to evolve throughout various crises.

معرض | على وشك | آية نادِِرة زنتوت

‫آيــة نــادِرة زنتــوت (مواليــد 1996، لبنــان) فنانــة بصريــة ومهندســة معمارية. تقع ممارسـتها الفنية عنـد تقاطعات الفن، والبيئًة المبنية ،والتاريخ، والهوية، فتوثـق هويّاتها (وهويات مدينتها) المتضاربة فيما تسـتمر فـي التطـور عبر مختلـف الأزمات.‬ by @ayanzan

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8 months ago

Schism/إنفصام

Process //

Four weeks spent in an intense quasi-meditative state, sometimes in silence and many other times not, this work was as much emotional and mental as it was physical. The piece is an ode to love and an attempt to grieve, and I’m eternally grateful to @makhould and @beirutartcenter @iai.ee for giving me the space (also: both physical and emotional) to create this, and for mediating a month-long studio session with the coolest artists around.

Schism/إنفصام is on view as part of the collective emerging artists show Slow Burn curated by @makhould at the @beirutartcenter until February 28th. taken in Beirut Art Center by @ayanzan

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10 months ago

Ramadan Kareem 🌙
أوّل رمضان من دون جدو معتصم رحمه الله

I am told that he was not a fan of photos in his younger years, but he never told me no when I pointed my camera at him. So I’m left with a big archive of photos and videos, a lot of which I’ve taken of him in the past few years, and others I’ve collected and archived.
This is a snippet from the life of the universally-loved man that lived a full, beautiful life ☀️ taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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8 months ago

for my 30th I walked 30km around Beirut and took 30 photos along my way

#film taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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9 days ago

5 more of the 99 names ❤️ الرَّؤوف ❤️ might be my favorite to write so far

‎1- ٱلْبَرُّ (Al-Barr) - The Source of Goodness
‎2- ٱلتَّوَابُ (At-Tawwab) - The Accepter of Repentence
‎3- ٱلْمُنْتَقِمُ (Al-Muntaqim) - The Avenger
‎4- ٱلْعَفُوُّ (Al-Afūw) - The Pardoner
‎5- ٱلرَّؤوفُ (Al-Raaūf) - The Most Kind

‎ٱلْبَرُّ (Al-Barr) - The Source of Goodness

‎ٱلتَّوَابُ (At-Tawwab) - The Accepter of Repentence

‎ٱلتَّوَابُ (At-Tawwab) - The Accepter of Repentence

‎ٱلْمُنْتَقِمُ (Al-Muntaqim) - The Avenger

‎ٱلْمُنْتَقِمُ (Al-Muntaqim) - The Avenger

‎ٱلْعَفُوُّ (Al-Afūw) - The Pardoner

‎ٱلْعَفُوُّ (Al-Afūw) - The Pardoner

‎ٱلرَّؤوفُ (Al-Raaūf) - The Most Kind

‎ٱلرَّؤوفُ (Al-Raaūf) - The Most Kind taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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24 days ago

and remembering how magical photography can be🧚🏻‍♀️💘

xxo #film taken in Scotland, United Kingdom by @ayanzan

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a month ago

my little companion is filling up ❣️ these are a few of the complimentary adjectives and antonym pairs from the 99 names of Allah

‎1- الغَفور (Al Ghafour) - The Forgiving
‎2- الشَّكور (Al Shakour) - The Appreciative
‎3- الحَكَم (Al Hakam) - The Judge
‎4- العَدْل (Al Adl) - The Just
‎5/6- الضَّٰر/النّافع (Al Darr)/(Al Nafeh) - The Distresser/The Benefactor
‎7- الأَوَّلُ (Al Awwal) - The First
‎8- الآخِر (Al Akher) - The Last

‎الغَفور (Al Ghafour) - The Forgiving

الشَّكور (Al Shakour) - The Appreciative

الشَّكور (Al Shakour) - The Appreciative

الحَكَم (Al Hakam) - The Judge

الحَكَم (Al Hakam) - The Judge

العَدْل (Al Adl) - The Just

العَدْل (Al Adl) - The Just

الضَّٰر/النّافع(Al Nafeh)/(Al Darr) - The Distresser/The Benefactor

الضَّٰر/النّافع(Al Nafeh)/(Al Darr) - The Distresser/The Benefactor

الأَوَّلُ (Al Awwal) - The First

الأَوَّلُ (Al Awwal) - The First

الآخِر (Al Akher) - The Last

الآخِر (Al Akher) - The Last taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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a month ago

I had the privilege to spend part of August as one of the artists in residence at the historic @hospitalfield

Safe to say it was a surreal time full of beautiful conversations with everyone at the house. Being on the Scottish coast was a welcome respite from the past year, and helped squeeze out some creative juices that had been drying up in the chaos of the war.

I owe a big thank you to @britishcouncillb for sponsoring my residency.

And a big thank you to everyone at Hospitalfield and my fellow residents who made this stay absolutely magical
🌻 taken in Hospitalfield by @ayanzan

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a month ago

Blink
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An intaglio print diptych exhibited as part of the collective printmaking show The Unreliable Ledger, by the @beirutprintmakingstudio community.

This work honors the archive that has been the spine of my printmaking practice, as it now (at least physically) no longer exists. With both prints made with one copper plate, the first print can no longer be remade. Same as the archive, it is forever erased.

The show was exhibited at @nomadutopia in September and is currently on view at @hayart_centre as part of @ipbyerevan until Nov. 28.

Big gratitude to @tarekmouradstudio and @shams_safieddine_
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These two prints, as all work being made in the foreseeable future, is dedicated to my beautiful teta Nadera.
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❣️ taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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a year ago

Exhibition | 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯 | Aya Nadera Zantout
Schism, 2025
Acrylic on unbleached cotton fabric, acrylic on wall
285 x 1250 cm, wall dimensions variable

𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘮 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 / 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 / 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 / 𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩

Written across an expanse of cotton, ad infinitum, these are words the artist is attempting to commit to memory in the wake of her grandmother’s passing and the subsequent destruction of her home. The verse, excerpted from a poem the artist’s Palestinian grandmother, Nadera, learned as a schoolgirl, was summoned to the matriarch’s mind in her final days of life. Fueled by the artist’s family history of struggle with violence, Schism confronts a legacy of repeated trauma. For the second time in four decades, Teta Nadera’s house in Beirut was destroyed. With the once pristinely preserved totems from her grandmother now permanently altered or gone, these few words are the only remaining intangible pieces of her memory that the artist can record.
Part meditation, part masochism, this repetitive process is at once an act of tribute and self-torture, compensating for not committing the poem to memory earlier. It is a refusal to let go of the last remnants of a life that were forcibly erased. As Aya Nadera continues to grapple with her grief, Nadera remains ever-present in her abject refusal of death in all its forms by @ayanzan

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8 months ago

Honored to have this little piece featured in the timely new issue of Rusted Radishes, Pain, alongside artists and writers that I look up to. I made the final piece the day after the “ceasefire”, after a sleepless night waiting for the bombs to stop, and every آخ came out from an indescribable place of وجع.
Thank you to @omarmismar and @rr28 and the entire @rusted_radishes team. My آخ is the inside cover and I’m thankful.

Get your issue and support their crowdfunding effort to keep the magazine running
❣️ taken in Beirut, Lebanon by @ayanzan

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a year ago

Playing around with a new scanner 🖨️🔨🩻

‎1- المُحيي [The Giver of Life]
‎2- المُميت [The Creator of Death] by @ayanzan

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a year ago