What hides in the shadows: Where to be this weekend in the Middle East

With the turn of seasons, there always comes a slump in our energies and cities. But what's exciting about chaos and busy sounds dissipating is that you get to see what was hiding under them.

This week, our featured exhibits explore what remains when you strip away violence and identity and are left with your fossils and roots.

Every Thursday, L’Orient Today, in partnership with The MYM Agenda, guides you through happenings across the Middle East that are actually worth your time.

What to do this weekend in Beirut:

This weekend is your last chance to catch painter Ali Chamseddine's “Light in the Shadows of Ruin” at Art District in Gemmayzeh. 

In these works, Chamseddine attempts to illustrate what survives dark periods of Evil, as he calls them. When violence dissipates, amid all the rubble and destruction, as people, we cannot help but feel hopeful again, even if we can't admit it to ourselves.

"It is a humble and respectful attempt to come close to those who cross wars with fragile bodies and unbroken souls," he explains.

For more information, click here.

Galerie Cheriff Tabet in Achrafieh inaugurates this weekend sculptor Mireille Honein's latest exhibit, "A Travers Les Temps."

If you're familiar with the Lebanese art world, you'll know that Honein's name has become synonymous with bouts of passion and rebellion. Leaving behind a career in law, she threw herself into her art, experimenting with wood, stone, then concrete, metal and plaster to reimagine what our bodies are meant to represent.

For more information, click here.

What to do this weekend in Riyadh:

Egyptian artist Fatma Abdelrahman and Saudi artist Mohammed al-Ghamdi come together in their dual show "Flux," currently on display at Hafez Gallery in Riyadh's Diriyah Jax District.

Using pen drawings, Abdelrahman explores reincarnation and rebirth through trees and botanical life, mirroring the growth, loss and regeneration that shape the human experience.

Drawing on his background in engineering, Ghamdi reclaims and reconfigures discarded wood and found objects. Fossilized in the present, his medium becomes a vessel of the past and a silent witness to collective change and forgotten histories.

For more information, click here.

What to do this weekend in Abu Dhabi:

Artbooth Gallery in Abu Dhabi is presenting "Heritage, Memory and the Body," a group exhibition featuring Palestinian female artists Rania Amoudi, Dina Matar, Fatima Abu Rumi and Marwa al-Najjar.

The four painters have different, distinct styles, but are joined by the stories their works tell. Attempting to fight static portrayals of femininity and nationhood, the Palestinian women in their stories are always headstrong, whether at home, working in the land or in resistance.

For more information, click here.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Stay up to date with all these events and more everywhere in the Arab world through the Mym Agenda, available on our website here.