We listed four exhibitions you should not miss this week in the region. 

To Live and Let Live: Mohamed Berro, Beirut Art Centre, Beirut

Beirut Art Centre presents a solo exhibition on Mohamed Berro, who has recently completed his three-month residency with the centre. Berro’s research focuses on the violent limitations and dark underbellies of key liberal values, examining the exclusions formed by such promises. This research continues from the artist’s 2019 film What Side on Earth Do I Work for?, which exposed the vacant performativity of the notion of transparency. With his new work, Berro expands his critique to notions of personal freedom and private property by looking at two seemingly distant enclosures. 

The exhibition closes on 13 February 2021. 

After Hours, Darat al Funun, Amman

Darat al Funun’s new online exhibition presents the work of Ali Hussein Al-Adawy, Noor Abuarafeh, Ahmed Mongey, Rama Sabanekh, Asha Athman, and Sanabel Abdelrahman. The participants’ eight-week research residency examined the contextual entanglements and modes of navigating institutions obligations in art, writing and publishing, among other fields. The project began from an institutional point of view: what is the institution doing? What art and cultural institutions can signify as a possibility or limitation?

The result is a temporary egalitarian space, where a figurative horizontal relationship exists between the participants of this project, their subjects of work, and their respective contexts of production. 

Check out the exhibition here. 

A Century in Flux: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah

As a long-term collaboration between the Barjeel Art Foundation and the Sharjah Art Museum, a selection of works of modern Arab art from the Barjeel collection are on permanent display. Curated by Salwa Mikdadi with Barjeel curators Mandy Merzaban and Karim Sultan, the exhibition explores how Arab artists have responded to historical events in the region and how the human condition is consequently impacted over the course of a tumultuous century. Concurrently, the permanent installation of works offers a comprehensive presentation of the variety of styles, techniques, and themes of modern Arab art. 

The exhibition can also be viewed virtually:

A Century in Flux: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation Virtual Tour 

A Century in Flux: Chapter II  –  Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation Virtual Tour

The exhibition closes on 30 May 2023. 

Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960-2020, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha

Mathaf presents a group exhibition that departs from its extensive collection of modern Arab art. Curated by Lina Ramadan, the exhibition looks at reference points that brought together artists, intellectuals, and cultural activists who shaped the cultural and artistic scene in Doha. Through paintings, archival materials, photography, video, and installation, the exhibition surveys local and regional collaborations, as well as the evolution of artistic and cultural practices in the State of Qatar. Artists featured in the exhibition include Saleh Taher, Faiq Hassan, Gazbia Sirry, Adam Henein, Ibrahim Al Salahi, Khalifa Al Qattan, Jassim Zaini, Dia Azzawi, Abdulwahid Al Mawlawi, Hassan Al Mulla, Youssef Ahmad, Wafika Sultan Al Essa, Faraj Daham, Mohammed Ali Abdulah, Saif Al Kuwari, Ali Hassan, Salman Al Malik, Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani, Wafa Al Hamed, Aisha Al Misned, Sophia Al Maria, Bouthayna Al Muftah, and Sara Al Obaidly.

Check out the curator’s tour here.

The exhibition ends on 16 January 2021.

Featured image courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation.