No Provenance: Artist Project by Issam Kourbaj
10 Nov 2026 - 31 Jan 2027
No Provenance is a major new artist project by Cambridge-based artist Issam Kourbaj (b. 1963, Syria). The exhibition begins with the disappearance of the label. Archaeological artefacts, historical documents and photographs, personal belongings, casts, copies, found objects, fakes and forgeries, alongside newly commissioned contemporary artworks and moving images, are encountered without the texts that normally identify, contextualise or authenticate them.
The exhibition is presented in two venues. At the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (MAA), objects cared for by the museum are shown alongside projection and screen installations. At The Heong Gallery, Downing College, unprovenanced material is juxtaposed with contemporary artworks and documentary traces of undocumented lives.
Rather than presenting definitive answers, No Provenance opens a space for speculation, doubt and multiple readings, inviting visitors to reconsider how authenticity, identity, knowledge and belonging are constructed and maintained.
