Déjà Vu
Described as “the UAE’s first collaborative gallery exhibition”, this 14-day selling show features more than 50 artists represented by 20 of the UAE’s leading contemporary art galleries.
The intention is to provide a commercial opportunity for the galleries, which have been impacted by current events. The exhibition has been curated, however, and is themed: it “unpacks the incongruity and inanity of repeated cycles in three streams — the uncanny as it presents in historical mismatching and memory glitches; historical absurdity; and linguistic slippage”.
‘The uncanny’ aims to examine the surrealism that pervades moments of ‘déjà vu’, looking into the gap between the real and the perceived, the conscious and the imagined.
‘Historical absurdity’ explores Karl Marx’s classic assertion that history repeats itself “first as tragedy, second as farce”. Specifically, the show considers the geopolitical tensions faced by people here, and how their memories are altered in the face of new struggles – “often experienced as glitched familiarity or mis-memory”.
And ‘Linguistic slippage’ looks at how language becomes an unreliable tool for correspondence, connection, and factual record in the face of conflicting narratives, “leaving the foundations of communication unstable and untrustworthy”.
The featured artists include Samira Abbassy, Sadik Alfraiji, Nabil Anani, Ammar Al Attar, Mirna Bamieh, Lubna Choudhary, Samuel Fosso, Anahita Razmi, Larissa Sansour, Mithu Sen, Seher Shah, Slavs and Tartars, Lantian Xie, and Raed Yassin.
Participating galleries: Gallery Isabelle, The Third Line, Green Art Gallery, Lawrie Shabibi, Ayyam Gallery, Carbon12, 1×1 Art Gallery, Grey Noise, Zawyeh Gallery, Efie Gallery, Taymour Grahne Projects, Aisha Alabbar Gallery, Waddington Custot, Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, Firetti Contemporary, Satellite, Iris Projects, NIKA Project Space, Tabari Artspace, and Total Arts.
The exhibition has been curated by Kevin Jones, Artistic Director at Alserkal; Nada Raza, Director of Alserkal Arts Foundation; and Zaina Zaarour, Curator & Manager of Programmes at Alserkal Avenue.
To 8 May.
Above: Amir Khojasteh, A Man, Burning (2023: image courtesy of Carbon12 and the artist). Below: Farah Al Qasimi, A’s Reflection (2019: image courtesy of The Third Line and the artist)
