Do not miss these four exhibitions in the region and beyond this week.

Hiwa K: Do you remember what you are burning? Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai

The Jameel Arts Centre presents Hiwa K’s first solo show in Asia. The exhibition includes Hiwa K’s works from the past decade as well as an outdoor installation, One Room Apartment, originally commissioned for Documenta 14 (2017) and a new, interactive large-scale commission.

Hiwa K is known for blending humour with personal experience to produce a cohesive body of work that at once speaks to contemporary experiences of displacement, belonging and resilience while at the same time producing a highly personal portrait of the artist’s life experiences. Many of the works relate to the artist’s home city of Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, and his experiences of fleeing in refuge and returning many years later. Based ‘on his feet’ Hiwa K often inserts himself into situations of uncertainty, occupying the productive space of the amateur, or the ‘learner’, to query dominant forms of knowledge and the infallibility of academic ways of knowing.

The exhibition closes on 24 July 2021.

Hassan Sharif: I Am the Single Work Artist, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (Sweden)

In collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation, Malmö Konsthall presents a retrospective on Hassan Sharif as part of the exhibition’s European tour. Originally curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, the exhibition was first staged in 2017-18 at the Foundation and was the most extensive presentation of the late artist’s prominent career. This iteration of the exhibition in Malmö, curated by Mats Stjernstedi, Director of the Malmö Konsthall, and Hoor Al Qasimi, is presented together with Sharjah Art Foundation and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin. With a focus on sculptures and objects, the exhibition presents over 150 works from the artist’s diverse oeuvre, ranging from early satirical cartoons and documentation of performances in the Hatta desert to sculptural works that were produced in the last year of his life.

The exhibition closes on 10 January 2021.

Walking Targets: Thameur Mejri, Selma Feriani Gallery, Sidi Bou Saïd, Tunis

The Selma Feriani Gallery presents a solo exhibition on Themeur Mejri, an artist from Nabeul and professor at the School of Fine Arts in Tunis. In his first exhibition at the gallery, Mejri explores a political and critical vision of Tunisian society, while engaging the responsibility of the artist with regards to various contemporary issues.

Mejri’s new series are faithful to his oeuvre; the attention to the human body, charged with a powerful political interpretation. However, the artist is also now more concerned with deconstructing the relations of power and domination that structure contemporary societies, as opposed to discussing existential and metaphysical questions apparent in his previous works.

The exhibition closes on 23 January 2021.

L’Art Blessé, Villa Audi, Beirut

Villa Audi presents an exhibition discussing the aftermath of the tragic August 4th explosion. The Wounded Art show draws inspiration from both Kintsugi and trauma therapy, as the devastating incident in the port of Beirut left the city with gaping wounds: the loss of loved ones, physical injuries, psychological trauma and countless material destruction. The exhibition consists of three types of works: some inspired by the disaster; others damaged, unrestored but subject to enhanced relief; and those, finally, transformed by an artistic touch.

The exhibition closes on 16 January 2021.