But We Cannot See Them Tracing a UAE Art Community 1988-2008 : Tracing a UAE Art Community 1988-2008 / Maya Allison with Bana Kattan and Alaa Edris

Exhibition catalog.
This exhibition and book publication together surveyed the founding decades of a profoundly influential artistic community, working at the vanguard of contemporary art in the UAE since the 1980s. Eventually, some of these artists founded the celebrated Flying House.

The book tells this story through interviews with the expanded group of artists, filmmakers, poets, and writers that make up this community (including Nujoom Alghanem and Khalid Albudoor), and those who joined it or supported it along the way (Cristiana De Marchi, Abdulraheem Sharif), as well as essays by peer and writer Adel Khozam, and art historian Aisha Stoby.

The title of the exhibition and book is drawn from a poem written by a key member of the community, poet and filmmaker Nujoom Alghanem.

But We Cannot See Them was curated by Maya Allison, with Bana Kattan, and Alaa Edris. It included archival material and video interviews with members of the community, alongside artworks from the 1988 through 2008, as well as a reading room of work from other important members of the community.
Texts: Maya Allison, Aisha Stoby, Adel Khozam, Bana Kattan. Artists: Khalid Albudoor, Nujoom Alghanem, Hussein Sharif, Mohammed Kazem, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Abdullah Al Saadi, Jos Clevers, Vivek Vilasini, Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Abdul-Raheem Sharif, Cristiana de Marchi, Hassan Sharif.

Arabic