Until 30 June 2024, Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) is hosting Grounded Being, a collective exhibition featuring nine regional creatives. It delves into the intricate personal, political, social, and cultural relationships between the human body and land, the source of its sustenance.
The curated selection of the artworks on view responds to traditions and practices from historical and contemporary Global South contexts to understand nativity, indigeneity, and the human relation to place. The exhibiting artists explore these concepts through social documentary, research-based practice, and conceptual works. Seeking to speak across scales, they propose the multiple ways in which a person can inhabit and be inhabited by their landscape, creating a connection between the health of a human and the vitality of their surroundings.
About the participants
Ali Zaraay (b. 1994) is a Cairo-based artist and documentary photographer. Since 2015, he has been working on his documentary project with the Nomadic Bedouins of Egypt. This year, it received a grant from the Culture Resource and the Arab Documentary Photography Programme by AFAC. Zaraay’s work is concerned with the change in the city, the demolition, construction, and displacement.
In her practice, which encompasses photography, storytelling, and creative writing, artist Imane Djamil (b.1996, Casablanca, Morocco) explores places in post-traumatic transition and aims to build unexpected bridges between elements. In 2021, she won the New Narratives in Environmental Photography Prize from the La Gacilly Photo Festival (France) and Fisheye Magazine.
Nadia Bseiso (b. 1985, Amman, Jordan) is a documentary photographer residing in her hometown. She works on long-term projects based on her research in geopolitics, history, anthropology, and environmental degradation. In 2017, Bseiso was selected as one of 34 Women in Photography by Time – LightBox.
Rehaf Batniji (b. 1990, Palestina) is a self-taught photographer living in Gaza City whose work focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian social and military conflict. Using parks, squares, sidewalks, beaches, and other public spaces, she offers an intimate portrait of this city. Batniji has witnessed four major regional conflicts that she managed to document using a cellphone and a digital camera.
Shaima Al Tamimi is a Yemeni-East African visual storyteller, photographer and filmmaker who resides in Qatar. To create her works, she takes cues from social issues that reflect her lived experiences. In her practice, Al-Tamimi examines such themes as migration, healing, and sociocultural issues within her environment.
Tanya Habjouqa is an award-winning documentary photographer whose art practice revolves around manifestations of trauma upon the landscape, intimate spaces, and interpersonal relationships. In her works, she combines a mordant sense of irony with forensic interrogations of the implications of geopolitical conflict on human lives.
Solmaz Daryani (b. 1989, Tabriz, Iran) is a photographer and artist living and working between the UK and her home country. A member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo, she is known for exploring the themes of climate security, climate change, water crisis, human identity, and the environment in the Middle East.
Tanya Traboulsi, who divides her time between Austria and Lebanon, grew up between two different cultures. In her practice, she examines the themes of belonging, identity, and memory. Traboulsi often pairs her photo work with material from her family archive, in both of which Beirut is an important recurring theme.
Sandra Zarneshan is an Italian-Iranian photographer interested in visual arts and urban landscapes. In her practice, she describes the relationship between what is visible and what is supposed to be, the surrounding space giving context to the connection between expectations and reality.
You can learn more about Grounded Being on the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting The Sky of the Seven Valleys by Ala Ebtekar.
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