Naima Morelli

Archive
October, 2025 Monthly archive

There, Where Wings Grow opens as a multifaceted meditation on the cycles of nature, and particularly on the steppe, explored by several Central Asian artists through ecological, historical, and mythic lenses. What emerges is not a nostalgic portrait of a nomadic past but a layered reflection on resilience and renewal.

At the center of the curatorial vision is Alan Medoev, the archaeologist whose 1960s expeditions uncovered hundreds of sites across the Kazakh steppe. His discoveries challenged Soviet portrayals of the region as an empty expanse and instead presented it as a cradle of memory. The exhibition extends that lineage, tracing how the steppe continues to act as an archive where cultural, personal, and ecological time intersect.

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An installation in a raw concrete industrial space displays several large video screens showing people lying in bed, arranged down a long, dimly lit corridor.

In regions like Latvia, where audiences aren’t saturated with contemporary art, you don’t need cynicism or irony,” says Payam of artist collective Slavs and Tatars. “That makes it possible to present pieces that are both aesthetically strong and politically charged, and the audience receives them without the defensive distance you might find elsewhere.

I wrote the article for Observer

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Themes of memory, belonging, and identity are recurring motifs in Traboulsi’s work. Born in 1976, a year after the start of Lebanon’s civil war, her family fled the country in 1983 to the safety of Austria, her mother’s home country. But a longing for Lebanon remained.

“When my family left Beirut, we left by ferry. I watched the city slowly disappear, a thin stretch of buildings retreating on the horizon getting farther and farther across the sea.”

That image stayed with her for 13 years, inspiring the title of her photo series, Beirut, Recurring Dream. “Years later, I took that photo. It’s in my book,” she says. “It was exactly how I remembered it.”

I have interviewed the artist for Hadara.

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What if a spoonful of rice could heal our aching hearts? This unconventional remedy—plov, Uzbekistan’s ubiquitous rice dish—was the solution that, according to legend, philosopher and physician Ibn Sina gave to a prince unable to marry the daughter of a craftsman.

This myth inspired the theme of the inaugural Bukhara Biennial: Recipes for Broken Hearts. Running until November 20, it unfolds across the restored caravanserais, madrasas, and public courtyards of this historical city.

Curated by Los Angeles-born Diana Campbell and Dubai-based Wael Al Awar, and commissioned by Gayane Umerova for the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the event proposes a form of exhibition-making that responds to the spirit of the place: through collaboration with local artisans, the use of regional materials, and the activation of Bukhara’s architectural heritage.

I wrote the story for Hadara.

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An exterior view of the Almaty Museum of Arts shows its angular limestone facade with rust-colored accents against a blue sky.

Private collections and individual visionaries are driving Kazakhstan’s cultural renaissance in the absence of major state investment. I wrote the story for the Observer.

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