New Experimental Work by Sarah Abdel-Jelil

Sarah Abdel-Jelil is the third artist to participate in SooVAC’s pilot Front Space Residency. Throughout 2026, the program invites artists to create work both on-site and off-site, allowing their projects to evolve and adapt over the course of the exhibition. In Abdel-Jelil’s kaleidoscopic film work, she moves beyond a singular focus on the body to explore how a collective, fractal presence emerges through repetition and mirroring. During her residency, she will deepen this research by integrating film, soundscapes, textiles, and interactive sculpture.

Sarah Abdel-Jelil is a Mauritanian-American filmmaker, dancer, musician, and multimedia artist based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota), USA. Inspired by her nomadic upbringing in a multicultural, interfaith household across eight different countries, her work explores the relational nature of home, movement, and liminal spaces as well as the tether between human and the more-than-human environment. She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in cinema and media studies from Carleton College and is a recipient of the 2026 Spillway Fellowship, 2019/20 MCAD-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Early Career Artists and the 2017 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. Her work has been screened at numerous venues and festivals including The Performance Arcade (Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand) the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, St. Cloud Film Fest, and Altered Aesthetics Film Festival. She has completed residencies at Rosy Simas Danse three thirty one space (Minneapolis, MN), Caldera Arts Center (Sisters, OR), Château de La Napoule (Mandelieu-La Napoule, France), and The Arts Centre (Ōtautahi, New Zealand). She is part of the CHANT (Culture Healing Nature Technology) collective and the Yalla Drum Ensemble with New Arab American Theater Works.

Gallery Hours:
Thurs-Fri 10 am-5 pm
Sat-Sun 11 am-5 pm.

Image: 22,000 Tons, 2025, multi-media installation, video projection and sculpture (dimensions variable)