frieze #257

The March issue of frieze spotlights artists and writers living and working in the Gulf region. In 1,500 Words, artist Monira Al Qadiri talks to senior editor Vanessa Peterson about how her childhood experience of war and ecological disaster in Kuwait has shaped her myth-driven practice. Plus, Lulu Almana, Faisal Al Hassan, Sara Al Omran, Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa contribute to a roundtable on the meanings and potentials of Gulf Futurism.

1,500 Words: The Colour of Pearls

‘I’m attempting to imagine the Gulf from a future perspective, where oil has long become obsolete.’ Monira Al Qadiri on how her work traces Gulf War afterlives through oil and cross-cultural aesthetics.

Roundtable: Gulf Futurism

‘One thing that feels very present in the Gulf is the tendency to frame everything through the lens of resource.’ As the region continues to expand and transform at unprecedented speed, artists, curators and gallerists consider two decades of accelerated development, shifting ecological systems, migration and rural-urban entanglements.

Also featuring

Maru Pabon profiles artist Alia Farid in honour of her concurrent shows at the Glyptotek and Copenhagen Contemporary. In a thematic essay, Rahel Aima analyses a wave of cultural institutions, collectives and artists who embody a collaborative, Gulf-first approach. Dana Awartani speaks to Fawz Kabra about repair, craft and the ethics of making.

Columns: Networks

Ahaad Alamoudi writes about founding SINDBAD Collective and launching a mobile exhibition across cities to spark community dialogue and participation; Ruba Al-Sweel writes on the cultural weight of burner phones; Samir Bantal outlines the potential of rural modernity in Qatar; The Third Line co-founder, Sunny Rahbar, speaks with senior editor Marko Gluhaich about the emerging galleries reshaping Dubai’s art scene; filmmaker Mohammad Alfaraj joins Roisin Tapponi to reflect on the possibilities and pressures shaping cinema in the Gulf today.

Finally, Carlos Valladares responds to a single work by M. F. Husain. Plus, Mohammad Alfaraj contributes to our series of artists’ ‘to-do’ lists, and associate editor Chloe Stead pens a postcard from Abu Dhabi.