Raja’a Khalid

The Politics of Comfort

In her studio practice, Raja’a Khalid is interested in the social hierarchies of space, “East/West dialogues” (both historical and contemporary), material and consumer culture, artistic interventions into archives and, more recently, the appearance and rhetoric of social systems. In Büchsenhausen she studied the pursuit of “bodily comfort” as the main driver of modernity and progress (as has been posited by various contemporary historians). Her research consisted of a transnational investigation of how contemporary notions of “being comfortable” are actually products of empire and of the diplomatic relationships between diverse societies over centuries.