“What common perception trivializes and misses, an artwork apprehends in its irreducible essence.”
-Emmanuel Levinas
It is a generally held view, that the function of art is expression, and that artistic expression rests on cognition. An artist tells of the untold. In this exhibition seven artist Ahmed Ashoor, Omnia Elamir, Sarah Aradi, Jaafar Al Haddad, Aziz Mutawa, Mariam Al Sadadi, and Rawan Alhosani propose a rare and critical convergence of inquisitive minds having a horizontal exchange on creative questions and topics of socio-cultural urgency. Al Riwaq residency Application 002 provided the artist a platform for negotiation avenues of awareness and promoting dialogue. Throughout the 3 month residency the artists were invited to explore and contest individual concepts within a collaborative format. Each work presented invites the viewer into the complex, diverse and significance of historical events, people, and sources.


I Never Could Talk to You By Omnia ElAmir

This is the Altar in Reverse by Aziz Motawa

Unforgiving Pace by Mariam Al Sadadi


A Cultural Movement by Jaafar Al Haddad


Shredding by Rawan Al Hosani


Adaptive Disclosure by Sarah Aradi

Variations 1-6 by Ahmed Ashour