Marian Abboud

About Marian Abboud (she/her)

Marian Abboud is a multi-disciplinary Western Sydney based artist. She works across various technologies to create collective outcomes through projected images that feed into performance, installation and site-specific works. Marian uses multilingualism through movement, video, sound and text to develop live performances for civic engagement and social activism.

Marian works with participants from diverse communities to develop agency and socially responsive projects using curiosity as the springboard for cultural exchange and developing unique learning opportunities through creative expression. She is passionate about forging connections and creating meaning across perceived borders of place, language and identity.

Navigating themes of memory, loss and resilience. Her interests lie in oral histories, ancestral knowledge and collective mythologies.  Although Marian’s works develop from deeply personal and daily experiences, they often reference layered and complex histories that point to universal experiences of sovereignty, geopolitics and migration. Marian creates complex narratives by engaging with the community to build multi-layered works.

Biography

Marian graduated from the University of Western Sydney with a Bachelor of Visual Communication. She has exhibited extensively locally and nationally and has collaborated on many dance and performance-based projects including Volume AGNSW, Mona Foma in Hobart, 24 Frames, Carriageworks and Artspace. Marian has worked as an artist educator for the Art Gallery of NSW, Kaldor, ACE, UTP, ATS and Save the Children. Marian is one of the Artistic Directors for Next Wave 24-25, and will be mentoring and collaborating with artists and communities to create alternative learning opportunities. In 2023, Marian was one of the Artistic Directors for Lumbung in Western Sydney and was invited to be part of the Australian representatives to participate in Sekolah Temujalah at Documenta 15. She is also a member of Arab Theatre Studio and is the Artistic Director of Multilingual Programs at Think+DO Tank Foundation, a non-profit arts organisation in Fairfield.