Stone Assemblies

Stone Assemblies is an initiative developed in parallel with, but independently from, the production of Sebastia, an 800-square-meter artwork and city floor commissioned from Jumana Manna for Oslo's newly rebuilt Government Quarter.

Where Foyer Kunstnernes Hus Wergelandsveien 17 NO-0167 Oslo Directions

Stone Assemblies brings together voices thinking through the politics of stone, ruination, and dissent. Taking the political and cultural histories of extraction and land struggles in Palestine and Norway as its starting point, the book extends beyond both geographies to foreground practices shaped by diasporic and Indigenous traditions.

The essays, poems, artworks, and conversations challenge the nation-state's normative terms of order and its models of ceasefire, assimilation, and governance. The book reflects on what remains and what can be reconstituted as we seek anti-extractivist and anti-colonial forms of art and collective practice.

The book launch will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Jumana Manna, Rana Issa, Drew Snyder, Mohamed Abdi, and Wendy Lotterman, and a concert with poet and theorist Fred Moten and composer and bassist Brandon Lopez, making incendiary music for a burning world.

Jumana Manna is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Jerusalem and Berlin. Sebastia , launched in 2026, is one of the central public artworks of Oslo's new Government Quarter.