No Provenance

No Provenance opens on 4 November, a major new project by Cambridge-based artist Issam Kourbaj (b. 1963, Syria) that runs across two sites: The Heong Gallery at Downing College and the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology. It stays open until 24 January 2027, Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm to 5pm.

The whole thing starts with the disappearance of the label. You'll find archaeological artefacts, historical documents, photographs, personal belongings, casts, copies, found objects, fakes and forgeries sitting alongside newly commissioned contemporary artworks and moving images. The point is that each one is encountered without the text that would normally identify, contextualise or authenticate it. The objects are drawn from museums, archives, private collections and individual hands in Cambridge and beyond, and Kourbaj puts them on the same unsettled ground as undocumented people.

It's a wide-reaching mix. Alongside Kourbaj's own work, there are pieces by Alfred Stieglitz, Alfred Wallis, Constantin Brâncuși, Kenji Umeda, Mary Kessell, Mourad Kourbaj, Sean Mackaoui and Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, as well as many unknown makers. The exhibition is accompanied by an artist book, which is an artwork in its own right. The texts in it appear anonymously, with contributions from Ahdaf Soueif, Alex Butterworth, Avi Shlaim, Bhanu Kapil, Emma Durrant Lennon, George Szirtes, Helen Mort, Ruth Padel, Nadifa Mohamed, Preti Taneja, Ranjit Hoskote, Samar Yazbek, Sarah Howe, Selma Dabbagh, Somaia Abunada, Tice Cin and Xiaolu Guo, plus an interview with Kourbaj by English PEN.

Because it's spread across two venues, you'll need to visit both to see the full project. It runs from 4 November 2026 to 24 January 2027, Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm to 5pm.