WASHINGTON D.C. .- The Middle East Institute Arts and Culture Center, in partnership with Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, presents its latest exhibit, Perceptible Rhythms/Alternative Temporalities. Curated by Maya El Khalil, the exhibit features 12 artists from the Middle East and South Asia who explore the impact of conflict, urbanization and the climate crisis on their environments and the ways in which humankind can better care for the planet.
Hailing from countries as diverse as the UAE, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the artists use multimedia, installation, photography, drawing and painting, to explore ways to live in harmony with the planet by reconnecting with past cultural histories, remembering extinct plant species, and imagining alternative ways for humankind to attune to nature.
Leading Iranian-born artist Abbas Akhavan’s Study for a Monument (2014) presents bronze cast reproductions of flora native to modern-day Iraq whose environment has been decimated by decades of political and ecological turmoil. Jordanian photographer Nadia Bseiso explores the impact of water scarcity in villages along Jordan’s border with Israel, while in Disappearing Land (2022), Egyptian artist Marianne Fahmy imagines a future map of the Nile Delta river basin, which scientists predict will face severe flooding.
“In the process, the artists find different temporalities, rhythms, frequencies and stories of possibility in the movement of seeds, changing riverbeds and botanical archives,” said curator Maya El Khalil.
El Khalil is an independent curator, based in Oxford, UK who has worked extensively in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf with artists, collectors and institutions to develop the identity and ideas that have defined a growing art scene. Her last exhibition, Portrait of a Nation II: Beyond Narratives, which she curated for Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) in 2022, celebrated 50 years of art in the UAE, showcasing over 100 artworks of more than 60 pivotal artists.
“The climate emergency is the most pressing issue facing our planet today; yet, its reach and its complexity makes it too vast to grasp,” added Khalil. “Without disregarding the violence perpetrated by projects that prioritize growth and extraction over people and environment, the exhibition choses to tune into alternatives that are personal and malleable as artists revisit connections to nature, objects, places, memory and history, highlighting relationships with places worth fighting for.”
H.E. Huda I. Alkhamis-Kanoo, the founder of ADMAF, MEI’s exhibition partner, said, “As part of our commitment to raising awareness of crucial environmental issues through the arts, ADMAF is pleased to partner with the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. to present the visual arts exhibition entitled Perceptible Rhythms/Alternative Temporalities curated by Maya El Khalil which draws attention to the dire consequences of environmental degradation on communities and culture. We are especially proud to support two Emirati artists featured among the 12 regional artists, Moza Almatrooshi and Sarah Almehairi, reflecting our ongoing efforts to highlight Emirati artistic expression both in the UAE and around the world.”
"For MEI, this exhibition is both important and urgent," said Lyne Sneige, director of MEI's Arts and Culture Center. “We have been working to raise awareness about the challenges of sustainability, environmental security and the particularly heavy burden of climate change on the region through our policy work. Now, this beautiful show will help draw attention to those issues in a very relatable way, and will invite audiences to discover a lot of new work from artists in the region trying to imagine more sustainable ways of living.”
The featured artists are: Sarah Abu Abdallah, Abbas Akhavan, Moza Almatrooshi, Sarah Almehairi, Nadia Bseiso, Marianne Fahmy, Abdulnasser Gharem, Ali Kazim, Mohamed Mahdy, Maha Nasrallah, Filwa Nazer, Christian Sleiman
The show opened to the public on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, and is up through April 28, 2023. It can be visited at the MEI Art Gallery Monday through Friday between 10:00am-5:00pm at 1763 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 and online. For more information visit: www.mei.edu/arts-and-culture-center.
The Middle East Institute was founded in 1946 to promote knowledge and understanding of the region among U.S. citizens and to advance ties between the peoples of the two regions. MEI houses a Policy Institute, a source for non-partisan expert analysis seeking solutions to the region’s most challenging issues, an Education Center, offering classes, academic resources, and professional development services to foster regional understanding and an Arts and Culture Center. The Center facilitates cross-cultural understanding through exhibitions and cultural programming, including panel talks, film screenings, readings and performances that underscore the role of the arts in the Middle East.
Through arts education, community arts and special projects, Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) has been nurturing creativity across the UAE for more than two decades. Since its establishment by Huda I. Alkhamis-Kanoo in 1996, it has been at the forefront of the UAE’s arts sector, inspiring young people, the public and artists, and enabling creative expression through a wide range of programmes and projects. ADMAF supports the sustainability and creativity of the cultural industry and contributes to enriching Abu Dhabi as a cultural beacon by offering a wide array of initiatives, including Abu Dhabi Festival and several youth and societal programs and platforms, to support creative talents in the UAE and abroad.By bringing together audiences and institutions, the Foundation has helped embed arts and culture in the heart of the nation.
