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PARIS: The latest contemporary art exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris – “Arabofuturs”, which runs until October 27 – is, according to curator Élodie Bouffard, “built around the dynamics of the singularities expressed in the Arab world, and the singularity of each of the artists. ” These artists come from the Arab world and its diasporas, and include Saudi artists Ayman Zedani and Zahrah Alghamdi, Lebanese sculptor Souraya Haddad Credoz, Tunisian artist Aïcha Snoussi and Moroccan artist Hicham Berrada.

The show is divided into two parts: “Programmed Futures” and “Hybrid Futures.” In the first, Bouffard explains, the featured artists explore contemporary society, “capitalism, ultra-consumption, the question of exile, the diaspora and identities – often through a post-colonial approach.”

The second part deals with imagined communities – the artists deploy aesthetic fictions that take visitors into organic worlds “that make us travel through time and reflect on transhumanism, the future of man and the resilience of nature,” says Bouffard.

Both sections underline that the conception and perception of the future is personal, with each artist building on their personal experiences.

The exhibition begins with a space dedicated to Gulf artwork, and an introduction to the concept of Gulf futurism formulated by Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria and Kuwaiti musician and conceptual artist Fatima Al-Qadiri in 2012 as part of a photo series and magazine interview Dazed. It was, according to the IMA website, “an uneasy questioning of the accelerated hyper-modernization at work in the region.”

“This article was a defining moment in Gulf Futurism, having led artists to become interested in the question of futures and science fiction,” Bouffard explains.

Al-Maria's “Black Friday” – a series of photographs and a video installation – questions the standardization of spaces and the loneliness that can arise from it. It is followed by Al-Ghamdi's “Birth of a Place”, which was previously shown at the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, and explores new architectures.

“She tries to create a new cosmogony – a new (example) of the silhouette, the improvement of the heritage and the future of metal and glass constructions, in environments where there is a real material and architectural culture,” notes Bouffard.

The purpose of this section is to present different approaches to architecture, heritage, identity and exile in the Gulf and North Africa.

“Themes that pertain to the future of societies can be rooted in their past,” says Bouffard. “It is our job at IMA to stop seeing the Arab world as a block. We wanted to show that there is not only one future. When we talk about the future, everyone thinks of video games and artificial intelligence, but the future takes all forms. We thought it would be interesting to reflect on artefacts, paintings, ceramics and organic material.”

Al-Ghamdi, for example, used leather, an organic material in “Worlds to Come,” while Berrada used metal to create hybrid masks that combine insects, plants and humans in “Les Hygres.” Elsewhere, Credoz worked with ceramics “to shape colored magma and build post-apocalyptic organic worlds,” says Bouffard.

Snoussi, meanwhile, “recreates manifestos that bear witness to past societies that have disappeared, leading to Arabic writing, but also to Amazigh, with a theme of symbolism that recreates bridges between the present and the future.”

Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour contributes “In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain”, a 2015 video showing archaeological activists burying porcelain with a keffiyeh motif, an attempt to stake a future claim to this territory.

“She highlights the politicization of archeology in Israel and Palestine in this video, which has particular resonance today,” says Bouffard.