Habeeb Abu-Futtaim: The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia and Songs in Solitude

Two interconnected exhibitions, both curated by Mo Reda and supported by the Department of Painting and Printmaking at VCUarts Qatar. Together, The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia and Songs in Solitude mark the culmination of a two-month residency at Bayt AlMamzar; they present several different bodies of work developed over the past ten years, drawing from an artistic practice shaped by sustained research, investigation, and critical inquiry.

Working across painting, installation, performance, video, and writing, Abu-Futtaim investigates the construction and performance of collective identities, examining how inherited symbols, political imaginaries, and cultural narratives become internalized as expressions of belonging. Songs in Solitude reflects on the intimate space of artistic practice through playfulness, imagination, intimacy, and selfhood; The Ongoing Performance of Melancholia turns outward to examine the inherited performances of collective identity and the burden of unrealized political futures. Between them the exhibitions move between the personal and the political, revealing how solitude, memory, and collective imagination continually shape one another.

To 2 October.