Khosh Bosh with Anita and Sarah

Hessa's myth for the myth library. Hessa Al Nuaimi is a co-curator from Dirwaza Curatorial Lab for Evaporating Suns. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

Dania's myth for the myth library. Dania Al Tamimi is a co-curator from Dirwaza Curatorial Lab for Evaporating Suns. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

Anita's myth for the myth library. Anita is one of the co-curators from Dirwaza Curatorial Lab for Evaporating Suns. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

The fourth episode of the special season of Khosh Bosh with Anita focuses on the subtheme The Local Natural and Built Environment from the Evaporating Suns exhibition. I am joined by Mays Albaik and Asma Belhamar and my co-host for this episode, Munira Al Sayegh. In this episode, we discuss the extensive research that was conducted by Mays and Asma for their collaborative commissioned work, Rakkaza, which references a recipe for making a human by 8th century muslim polymath, Jabir Ibn Hayyan. Rakkaza explores the connection between creation and place via studying and recording the planetary relationship to the sun and the repetition of the rotation around it–tune in to hear more about their process and the final work. Mays Albaik’s interdisciplinary visual practice investigates how a sense of placehood is formed, reflected and refracted by that which mediates it – the body, language, and their various intersections. Crystalizing as performance, video, sculpture and installations, her work layers a personal poetics onto the sociopolitics that define our relationship to geography; looking for moments of immediate contact between place, body and language. She holds an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and a B.Arch from the American University of Sharjah. Mays’ early practice developed out of the oral narration of her family’s history, the story of her grandfather’s exile from Palestine, and the winding path through geopolitical and cultural landscapes that led to where she is now; a non-citizen resident of her country of birth. Asma Belhamar (b. Dubai, 1988) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice frequently confronts the visual memory of local landscapes. Through this anchoring theme, she merges architectural and organic elements translating into hybrid materiality. Informed by her interdisciplinary background in art and design, projects range in approach and material to offer a perspective considering the aesthetic and theoretical implications of vernacular architectural practices within the built environment. Asma’s works are largely observational, offering insight into the chronological history of architecture and responding to notions of perspective, time, and spatial memory. Munira Al Sayegh is an independent curator and cultural instigator based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is the founder of Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, a UAE-based curatorial incubator. She is a published author and prominent public voice in the region, highlighting the importance of grassroots initiatives, narrative reclamation and non-institutional thinking to build regional art movements from the bottom up. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

The third episode of the special season of Khosh Bosh with Anita focuses on the subtheme Social Arrangements and Structures from the Evaporating Suns exhibition. I am joined by Mashael Alsaie and my co-host for this episode, Dania Al Tamimi. Tune in to hear more about Mashael’s practice in general and her commissioned work for Evaporating Suns, titled Barren Spring, in specific. In this episode, Dania and I explore how social structures and dynamics are affected by the myths we hear and how the myths we tell shape those social dynamics in turn, as well as how people are introduced to myths in her work, creating an experience of maintaining various perspectives and narratives around the same event or place, at the same time. Mashael Alsaie holds a BA in Urban Studies from UC Berkeley and is currently pursuing an MA in Photography, Video, and Media Arts from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. She is a Bahraini photographer and video artist whose work forms fractured narratives that reflect critical thinking about femininity, ritual, and representation. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Misk, Riyadh (2020), PS122, New York (2019), and the Bahrain Annual Fine Arts Festival (2020). She completed a residency at Residency Unlimited in Brooklyn, New York, and is a fellow at Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation (2021). Her work has featured in such publications as Vogue Arabia and Vogue Italia, Al Ja- zeera Plus, Emirates Woman, MinaaZine, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Mille, Nasi, and GirlGaze Dania Al Tamimi is an artist, curator, and researcher. Al Tamimi co-founded Rummān Collective, an online platform for emerging artists, and is currently the Curatorial Planning Coordinator at Dirwaza Curatorial Lab. Al Tamimi curated her first independent show with 421 Biography of a Passage, 2023 at Art Dubai. Al Tamimi views her practice as an exploratory journey focusing on questioning definitions and binaries. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

The second episode of the special season of Khosh Bosh with Anita explores the subtheme Perspective Negotiations from the Evaporating Suns exhibition. I am joined by artists Fatema Al Fardan and Zuhoor Al Sayegh, as well as my co-host for this episode, Hessa Al Nuaimi. Tune in to hear more about their commissioned work for this exhibition, Umm Al Khathar wa Al Leaf, and their research over the last two years including date-farm site visits and their collaborative writing practices, as well as the start of their creative relationship during their time as SEAF fellows. Fatema Al Fardan and Zuhoor Al Sayegh are interdisciplinary artists from Abu Dhabi. Al Sayegh explores indigenous textile practices and decolonization. Al Fardan explores intersections of femininity within contemporary culture. They have exhibited at various venues in the UAE and abroad and were awarded the Sheikha Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship. The artists have worked collaboratively for the past year studying date palms. Hessa Al Nuaimi graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi with a BA in Art and Art History and is a researcher and curator. Al Nuaimi focused her thesis on the history of The Cultural Foundation, Abu Dhabi, from 1981 to 2008, highlighting this space as a pioneer of culture. This research further anchored Al Nuaimi’s curatorial practice which highlights the importance of local voices in community-led spaces, accessibility, and education. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

In the first episode of the special season of Khosh Bosh with Anita, we discuss the curation of the Evaporating Suns exhibition. I am joined by Munira Al Sayegh and Verena Formanek. Tune in to hear more about their individual curatorial practices, the process of commissioning nine artworks for Evaporating Suns and the joys and questions that come with cross-cultural curation. Munira Al Sayegh is an independent curator and cultural instigator based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is the founder of Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, a UAE-based curatorial incubator. She is a published author and prominent public voice in the region, highlighting the importance of grassroots initiatives, narrative reclamation and non-institutional thinking to build regional art movements from the bottom up. Verena Formanek graduated with an MA from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. In 1989 she joined the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna as Curator of Design and Exhibitions. She installed the permanent collection in contexts designed by international artists like Barbara Bloom, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, and Heimo Zoberning. Formanek was Deputy Artistic Director at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel from 1996 to 2004 and worked closely with Ernst Beyeler. The three following years she was Head of Collections at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich. In 2010 she joined the culture department of The Tourism Development and Investment Company as Senior Project Manager for the soon to be opened Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. She worked in the same capacity in the museum department of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority until 2016. This special season of Khosh Bosh consists of four hour-long episodes that discuss the works from the exhibition, Evaporating Suns, in-depth with the artists and curators, as well as a myth library that showcases the different myths that the the KBH.G and Dirwaza teams grew up hearing. The thirteen artists showcased in this exhibition are Maitha Abdalla, Mays Albaik, Fatema Al Fardan, Moza Al Matrooshi, Abdullah Alothman, Farah Al Qasimi, Mashael Alsaie, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Asma Belhamar, Alaa Edris, Saif Mhaisen, Fatima Uzdenova, and Bu Yousuf. The exhibition is presented by KBH.G in Basel, Switzerland and is curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab with the support of Verena Formanek. Presented by Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger I KBH.G. Season sponsored by the Foundry in Downtown Dubai. Music by Ronald Ekore.

This week Sarah is joined by Sunny Rahbar, founder of The Third Line gallery. Listen in to hear about how the The Third Line (nearly 19!) was borne of a series of fortunate events, the risks Sunny took in her commitment to her consistently stellar gallery programme, and why partying is not just partying. Podcast sponsored by The Foundry Sound engineering by Ronald Ekore Music composed by Sara Fakhry

This week Anita is joined by Shahd Bani-Odeh, Kerning Cultures' Senior Editor and Senior Consultant and Arabic Content Specialist at Barker Langham. Tune in to hear about Shahd's initial fascination with journalism as a child in Palestine, her reflections on the significance of podcasts as a medium and her own experience as the host of Bhob podcast, as well as her work as a cultural consultant at Barker Langham. Podcast sponsored by The Foundry Sound engineering by Ronald Ekore Music composed by Sara Fakhry

This week Anita and Sarah are joined by artist Rami Farook. Listen in as they chart a trajectory of a lifetime spent in Dubai’s evolving art scene, the need for escape and an optimism for the future.

This week Anita and Sarah are joined by Faisal Al Hassan, head of Warehouse421. Faisal tells us about a serendipitous series of events that led to his unlikely career change, how he feels we can and should foster sustainable cultural practices, and the magic that comes out of institutional collaborations across borders.

This week Anita and Sarah are joined by artist Ziad Al Najjar. Tune in to hear about Ziad's creative childhood, completing his BFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he gets his inspiration, and his recent exhibition at Tabari Artspace Gallery, where he is the youngest represented artist.

Season 3 of Khosh Bosh is starting this week! Stay tuned...

This week Anita and Sarah are joined by filmmaker and founder of Tawahadna, Stavros Antypas. Stavros discusses the impact that the culture of the creative ecosystem in Jeddah had on his philosophy for Tawahadna, how much he loves collaboration and believe everyone can be a Main Character alongside him, and how censorship can forge better storytellers. Tawahadna is a storytelling production house that shoots documentaries about MENA-based women in the arts and also hosts workshops and public programming that bring together the regional artistic community. Podcast powered by The Foundry Music composed by Sara Fakhry

This week Anita and Sarah are joined by the Director of Art Jameel in Dubai and Jeddah, Antonia Carver. Antonia was previously Director of Art Dubai (2010-2016); Editor/Projects Director at Bidoun (2004-2010); in programming and development at Dubai International Film Festival (2004-2011), among other roles. Listen in to hear about the first studio Antonia ever visited, being careful not to “drink Kool-Aid” and the power of approaching the arts out of left field, with a whole new perspective. Podcast powered by The Foundry Music composed by Sara Fakhry