Al Riwaq Art Space

With every narration of Manama’s history, we find ourselves excavating new interesting layers. It is our own curiosity about our city – Manama – that has led to the idea behind this exhibition. The exhibition takes on a bifocal approach:
1. The inside of the gallery space is dedicated to documenting Manama’s history narrated by writer and journalist Ebrahim Bashmi as well as artist A. Karim Al Orrayed.
2. The neighbourhood physically surrounding the gallery provides a space for a number of various artists to reflect on their relationship with the city. This inside-outside approach provides a plane from which people can view an eclectic conceptual landscape. This method we find to be one that evokes both a constructive nostalgia and an exciting understanding of our present in relation to the past.
This exhibition does not attempt to display the absolute history of the city, but we certainly believe that this is an important step in documenting perhaps some overlooked angles.