Curated by Abed Al Kadiri, Amal Khalaf and Abdulnasser Gharem.
In Search of Lost Time is an exhibition that explores the complex relationship between image, speed and time in the Gulf, questioning the chronological and territorial notion of the region and the paradigms of its underlying identity.
The accelerated pace of growth over the last sixty years has led to monumental shifts in the economic, physical and socio-political environment of the Gulf. This incredible speed of change has created rifts and tensions between an existing desert culture and rising global capitals; tradition and technology that increasingly define the Gulf states.
In Search of Lost Time presents work by 13 artists who seek to reframe conventional interpretations of time in the Gulf. Employing the strategies of archivists, time-travellers, explorers and storytellers, the artists seek out and develop temporal strategies of representation, utilising video, photography, performance, sculpture and painting as mediums of expression to revive residues of the past and propose unexpected alignments across time periods that also reveal the time-bending properties of technology. Additionally, a rotating exhibition within the exhibition, Gharem Studio, Riyadh presents work by emerging artists under 25 that are creating shifts in the way that art, video and social critique are made and proliferated in the Gulf.
The works in In Search of Lost Time vibrate between temporal modes, of past, present, future and in between. Constructing perspectives on the region that are fragmented, disjunctive, or recursive in nature, or that reclaim and reengage with histories, present experiences and aspirations for the future.
The exhibition will mark the culmination of four years of cultural exchange between artists in the UK and the Gulf, initiated by the British Council in 2012 with the exhibition Out of Britain, a presentation of works from the British Council Collection which opened in Saudi Arabia and toured to Kuwait and Oman.
Includes artists:
Sophia Al Maria, Abdullah Al Saadi, Monira Al Qadiri, Ajlan Gharem, Jafar Islah, Mohammed Kazem, Raja’a Khalid, Sami Mohammed, Mohammad Sharaf, Hassan Sharif, Telfaz 11, Lantian Xie, Camille Zakharia, Gharem Studio
The exhibition is on display at the Brunei Gallery in London, 21 January 2016 - 19 March 2016. Find out opening times here.
