Hayy Jameel in Jeddah is currently hosting Jameel Prize: Moving Images, a collective exhibition which presents the shortlisted works from the seventh edition of the Jameel Prize, an international award founded by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Dedicated to moving image and time-based practices, the exhibition brings together nine artists whose work engages with Islamic culture, heritage, and contemporary lived experience. Curated by Rachel Dedman (Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East, V&A), it will be open to the public until 15 April 2026.
Selected from more than 300 submissions via an open call, the featured works span film, animation, video, and sound installation. Together, they reflect on themes of memory, displacement, environmental transformation, and the layered histories of the Middle East, South Asia, and their diasporas.
Among the participants is Indian artist Khandakar Ohida, winner of the seventh Jameel Prize. Working primarily with film and documentary forms, her practice often examines archives, museums, and the preservation of cultural memory. Her winning project, Dream Your Museum, centres on her uncle, Khandakar Selim, whose lifelong collection of objects becomes the basis for a reflection on the museum as both a physical and emotional archive. The film reimagines how memory and belonging can be constructed through moving images. It also questions the role of museums in India as institutions shaped by dominant national narratives.
The exhibition also features works (the film Chibayish and the sculpture In Lieu of What Was) by Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid, whose multidisciplinary practice addresses environmental politics, particularly the ecological impact of oil extraction in the Gulf. Syrian artist and architect Jawa El Khash contributes The Upper Side of The Sky, a 3D simulation that reconstructs endangered or destroyed archaeological and ecological sites in her homeland.
Zahra Malkani, a Pakistani artist and researcher, explores environmental degradation, colonial histories, and the politics of water through experimental video and sound-based works. She presents A Ubiquitous Wetness, an artwork emerging from her research into the intersections of sonic practices, water politics, and devotional traditions.
Other participants include Iraqi-Iranian artist Marrim Akashi Sani, who explores myth and folklore as frameworks for cultural memory; Iraqi-Dutch multimedia artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, known for his stark, poetic animations on exile and identity; and the Dubai-based trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, whose immersive installations challenge dominant narratives of art history and cultural production.
For more details, please visit the exhibition’s official web page.
Additionally, you might be interested in exploring The Bouquet and the Wreath by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook and Of Land and Water: Works from SAF Collection.
